Food Friday: Veggie Orzo Beef Stew

GUYS!  I made soup and it is SO GOOD!  I had a bunch of old/leftover veggies, so I kinda started with that and decided I wanted to use some random ground beef and some pasta.

I'm labeling this a stew because I figure I could eat it with a fork if I wanted.  That's my soup/stew line.  Eat with a fork & sop up the juice with bread = stew.  Spoon required = soup.

 

So much goodness all in one bowl.  I love it when things work out better than I expect.  Below is what I used, but feel free to substitute for what you have on hand.  The great thing about stew is that it thickens while it stands too.  You can add water each time you reheat to make the stew stretch a bit further.  This was also obscenely cheap.  It cost somewhere around $7 for the whole pot.

Here's the printable, which opens a print dialogue box in a new window.

Veggie Orzo Beef Stew

Ingredients:

3/4 pound ground beef, cooked and drained

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced (about 4 teaspoons)

1 medium onion, small dice ~1/4"

1 potato, small dice

8 celery stalks, chopped to 1/4"

8 oz baby carrots, chopped to 1/4"

1 can of peas

1 can of corn

6 cups water

6 teaspoons beef bullion granules (or 6 cubes)

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon red pepper

1/2 teaspoon white pepper (can omit if it's not in your pantry)

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf 

2 cups orzo pasta

2 more cups water

3 teaspoons corn starch

  

Directions:
In a large stock pot, combine everything except the corn starch, the second amount of water, and the orzo pasta.  Bring the pot to a boil.  Once boiled, turn down to a simmer.  Cook for 45 minutes.  Add the orzo pasta and the second amount of water if needed.  Simmer for 15 minutes more.  Stir in the corn starch at the very end.  You may want to mix the corn starch with a bit of water before adding it to the pot.  That will prevent lumps.  I did not do this, but I also didn't have consistency issues when I tossed the corn starch in the pot and stirred.  YMMV.  That's it!

This is a fairly low-maintenance recipe once the chopping, ground beef browning, and boiling is done.  You just kind of set it and forget it.  Stir it a couple times an hour or whatever and you can leave it on low heat all day.  I cooked the soup long enough for the onions to basically disappear.