cheeseburger soup

Soups are tricky around here.

A fragrant pot of soup 

bubbling on the stove

says 'warmth' 

in more ways than one, in my opinion.

And soups are generally simple meals to make.

(And clean up)

But when you have 7 eaters in a family,

and the entire meal is in one bowl,

and you want to please all of those tongues and tummies,

well,

it gets a bit tricky.

I saw a cheeseburger soup recently on pinterest,

reminiscent of the cheddar chowder we used to make.

Why it was called cheddar chowder

when it used velveeta,

is beyond me...

Anyways,

I thought, 'hey. I bet everyone would like a cheeseburger soup.'

So 

last night, 

I set out to make some.

After a few bites,

Tyler asked if I knew what I did,

so I could recreate it,

and Brandon asked if I was going to put it on the blog.

Then Lily - who as a rule - is not a big fan of soup,

assured me that even though she didn't quite empty her bowl,

she really liked it.

I guess we have a winner on our hands :-)

Normally, 

I cook my ground beef in the same pot I'm cooking the soup/chili/spaghetti sauce in.

Saves on washing.

This doesn't surprise you, does it?!

Last night, though,

because I was sewing, and really should have started dinner a little sooner,

I sped up the process by using a separate frying pan.

(I washed it immediately after adding the meat to the pot, so it wasn't too painful)

While my meat was browning (about 2 lbs)

(seasoned like we always season it - with our all purpose season all)

I threw 2 small peeled potatoes,

3 peeled carrots,

and a pound of radishes in the food processor 

and chopped them up.

Then added them to a pot 

in which I'd dropped 1/2 stick of butter

(I am not sure why I didn't use a whole??)

Because it didn't fit in the food processor with the other veggies,

I chopped an onion by hand

then added it to the pot, too.

I am a speedy onion chopper, so it's okay.

When the veggies were about half done cooking,

I added about a quart of chicken broth.

The meat was pretty well browned at this point, so I added it too

(and quickly washed the pan)

I sprinkled in some more season all

and some extra black pepper 

and garlic and onion powders, for good measure.

I brought that to a boil, then let it simmer for probably 15-20 minutes,

then I reduced the heat and added

2 c of milk, 

to which I'd added about a tsp of glucomannan 

and a few TBS beef gelatin as thickeners - and shook well.
(I shook the milk and thickeners. Not the soup. That would have been messy!)

Then I added about a cup of heavy cream.

While it bubbled gently,

I added about a cup each of the following 3 cheeses, grated:

monterey jack

sharp cheddar

colby/jack

I left it to simmer for another half hour or so 

'til the rest of the kids got home from TKD

then we ate it.

Some enjoyed it as is,

and some of us added chopped green onions,

bacon bits, jalapenos, and/or siracha sauce.

But the good news is - everyone enjoyed it.

Which is a huge win

in my book :-)

~

To make this more THM friendly, you could replace the milk with almond milk.

When I've got fresh raw milk in my fridge,

I'm not about to do that!

2 c of milk, divided among 10-12 servings,

doesn't really end up being that many carbs anyways.

And of course, you would omit the potatoes.

I add them 

because

when you live in a large family,

you make compromises.

That's one of mine.

Again, though, 2 small potatoes, divided so many ways? 

Eh.

That's fewer than 5 carbs...

(so really - even with the milk and potatoes ~ it's still perfectly on plan!)

~

You could also make this with ground venison.

Which is what I did

(but nobody knew it, until just now :-)

(I wasn't trying to trick people, 

so much as I was trying to give the deer meat a fair chance...)

So. I guess we like deer venison.

Yay!!