Manda’s Meals – The Magic Soup Recipe

The idea of The Magic Soup came from a soup I had learned to make in a nutritional cooking class for Diabetics in 2004. The original soup was called Corn & Potato Soup. We were taught how to make the soup in class and then sent home with the ingredients, which you can imagine were very sparse. To have fun with it I told my son Cody (who was five at the time) to pick any ingredient and I would put it in the soup but it had to be something that reminded him of the month. September was Mushrooms, October was Squash, November was Turkey and so on… every month we added to the pot until the pot couldn’t hold any more vegetables. My son loved the soup and he loved thinking of new things to put in it and one day, after an especially difficult cold, he had claimed the soup was magic because it cleared his sinuses. From that day on it was called The Magic Soup for its ability to transform without taking away the essence of it and also for what my son believed to be a cure-all for any cold. It is a very simple soup that you can make your own, it is warm and delightful for any season, but I always loved it most in the fall and winter. Although it is rich in onion I’ve found that even little ones can love it… if you let them add a little bit of their own magic to the pot.

The Basic Ingredients: 

Corn – 2 cans (28oz)
Potatoes – 6-7 large Red or med Idaho
Leek – 3 med or 2 large
Onion – 2 small to med or 1 large
Vegetable Broth – 2 34oz boxes or equivalent
Vegetable Bouillon – 5 squares or equivalent of Better Than Bouillon

The Additional Ingredients: 

Green beans – 2 cans (28oz)
Carrots – 1 can or 1/2 bag (for color)
Mushrooms – 1 can (prefer 1 container sliced)
Celery – 4 stalks
Beef Cubes – 1 pk pre-cut Beef (Soup) cubes

The Monthly Ingredients: 

Artichoke Hearts – 1 can (for Love)
Red Onion – 1/4 (for red/white coloring)

These are the ingredients I decided to use to present the recipe. However, you can add or subtract any of the ingredients that are Additional or the Monthly ingredient. You must keep the basic ingredients to make the soup. I highly suggest that you wash and prepare all the vegetables before cooking. If you are unsure of how to slice a Leek please reference the picture below.

Cut off the top (just after the leaves) and the bottom. Slice down the middle and wash thoroughly, dice like an onion.

1) Prepare Vegetables. Wash, dice, chop, peel… Slice the Beef Cubes to half their size.

2) In a large pot add the Vegetable Broth, Corn & Green beans (do NOT drain, if you are using frozen make sure you add the equivalent of a can of water), Potatoes, 1/2 Onion, Mushrooms, Carrots, Celery, and 1/2 of the Leek. Set the temp to Low and cover.

3) Brown the Beef Cubes in a large skillet. When the Beef Cubes are partially cooked add 1/4 cup of water, the rest of the Leek and the rest of the Onion, finish browning and add to the pot.

4) Add your Bouillon and put the soup on Med and cover. Once the soup begins to simmer add salt and pepper to taste. You want to wait to add the salt and pepper because the soup tastes different once it has begun to really cook and blend the flavor of the Leek with the Vegetables. Before it has simmered the flavors together it tastes rather bland, especially if you are using a lot of Mushroom or Celery since they are palette cleansers and generally absorb the stronger flavors. So you want to wait to add your salt and pepper so as not to add too much. Just wait 1/2 hour if you are unsure.

5) Let the soup cook on med low for 1 hour. If it starts to boil then lower the temp. Once finished the soup should gift off a warm feeling from the Leek and Pepper. Pour into bowls and serve with crackers.

This recipe takes approximately 1 1/2 hours including prep time. This is for a large pot since my family loves left overs. You can half the recipe if you are unsure. The cost of the recipe varies depending on what is in your kitchen and what you are adding/subtracting from the original recipe.

To make it Vegetarian subtract the Beef Cubes. To give it a more Beefy flavor use Beef Bouillon in place of Vegetable Bouillon.

This dish goes very well with Cornbread. =)