Paleo-strone (hearty winter soup)

When the weather turns cold, it just feels natural to me to find comfort in a big steaming bowl of soup (or chilli or BOTH). And one of my all time favorite comfort soups is minestrone. However, minestrone is loaded with pasta and other things not currently on the menu. So I had to improvise. The following is what I came up with and it has become my current favorite cold weather meal!

Paleo-strone (vegetable beef soup)

Stuff You Need:

• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 sweet potato, julienned
• 1 cup carrots, julienned
• 1 zucchini squash, julienned
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 shallots, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb ground beef
• ½ lb Italian sausage
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
• 14 oz beef broth
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp salt (optional - the Italian sausage has a good bit of salt so feel free to omit)

What To Do:

1. Brown ground beef and sausage in a skillet until no pink remains, remove from heat, drain the fat and set aside.
2. Place the olive oil in the bottom of a 4-6 quart stock pot.
3. Add the prepared sweet potato, carrots, zucchini, shallots, and garlic and saute for about 1 minute, stirring often.
4. Pour in canned tomatoes and broth.
5. Add the spices and stir it all together.
6. Add in the cooked beef/sausage and let simmer on low for 45 minutes to an hour.
   Note: this dish can also be combined in a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours.

Note: you don't have to julienne the veggies. They could easily be chopped (just a rough chop, the small size is not necessary). I personally like to prepare them this way because the long strings of sweet potato and zucchini resemble the pasta I associate with traditional minestrone.

One of the best parts of this recipe (imho) is that you can pretty much make into whatever you want. If you would like to add some crunch, add a bit of chopped celery. I am told that chopped spinach (½ cup) or kale also works really well. If you want to switch out yellow onions for the shallots because that is what you have on hand, or maybe you have a couple of mushrooms in the fridge, feel free to make your substitutions!

The truth is, this is just a good, hearty, clean out the fridge/pantry kind of soup. And no matter how you mix it up, it is sure to satisfy!