Mariner's Home-style Vegetable-Beef Soup

I've been making this soup, on rare occasion, ever since I retired, at which time I temporarily assumed some of the cooking chores for which my Honey would otherwise have been responsible. I don't know why I haven't already posted it, because we really like it, and so has everyone who has had any of it. Anyway, I had a need to make some today, so I decided it was time to share my recipé. If you decide to re-create this, you'll need the following:

Ingredients:

Beef, lean-ish, steak, roast or stew¹	1½	lb
Potato, diced, 14oz can	2	ea
Tomato, diced, 14oz can	2	ea
Corn, whole kernel, 14oz can	1	ea
Carrot, peeled, and sliced, diced or grated²	1	cup
Celery, diced	1	cup
Sweet (Bell) pepper, diced	⅔	cup
Beef soup stock³	7	cup
Southern style soup blend⁴	2	cup
Red wine	1	cup
Garlic, granulated	1	Tbs
Onion, flakes	4½	Tbs
Worcestershire sauce	3	Tbs
Bay leaf	1	ea
Common salt	2	tsp
Black pepper, ground	½	tsp
Olive oil	1	Tbs
Optional additives:
Hot sauce	1	tsp
Parsley, flakes	½	tsp
Rosemary, ground	½	tsp
Thyme, ground	½	tsp

---

¹my preferred cut for this is a small round roast, but I have also used chuck with good results
²for immediate use, slicing the carrots is good enough, but for canning the soup, the pieces need to be small enough to achieve good distribution, and for carrots, I find grating is easier than dicing
³you can easily make this yourself, by dissolving 7 cubes of beef boullion in 7 cups of water
⁴this is a mix of several fresh-frozen vegetables in variable ratios - it typically contains field peas (w/snaps), butterbeans, corn, carrots, and okra; and may contain others as well

Directions:

1. Thaw all frozen vegetables, then add all ingredients except the beef, the wine, and the olive oil, to a large stock pot (I use an inexpensive 8-quart stainless steel pot) and begin heating. You want to bring the mixture to a low boil.
2. Put the olive oil in a skillet and turn up the heat, then dice the beef, making cubes that are approximately ½" on the edge, and sear in the hot skillet. When the meat has browned and the entrained water has boiled off, remove the beef and put it in the stock pot with the vegetables.
3. Deglaze the skillet with the wine, reducing the volume by half. Add the reduced wine to the stock pot
4. When the soup returns to a boil, allow it to simmer for about 2 hours before serving.
5. If you will be canning the soup, the National Center for Home Food Preservation website says you can begin filling jars after just 5 minutes of boiling; then it can be processed in a pressure canner as described in the guidelines. I usually can pints, and at my altitude the guidelines call for 60 minutes at 15 psi.

This recipé makes just short of  6 quarts, which allowed us to put up 7 pint jars (the maximum number of pints my smaller All-American Canner will hold), as well as save out a quart for my ailing daughter and her family; and have more than a quart left over for our immediate use.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way this batch turned out.  We had it for supper with some focaccia and tapenade on the side.