Easy Vegetable Beef Soup with Home-Canned Food
There is hardly anything quicker to prep for dinner than a dump-and-go soup. This vegetable beef soup with home-canned food comes together with less than 10 minutes of hands-on prep—and that includes walking to the pantry and grabbing the jars. This is exactly why I preserve basic ingredients like potatoes, beef, and tomato sauce. The work is already done, which means on a busy night I can open a few jars and have most of dinner ready to go.
Add garlic bread or cornbread on the side and you have a hearty meal made primarily from food you already have. Yay for recipes using home canned food!
Vegetable Beef Soup with Home-Canned Food
This really is one of the simplest recipes using home-canned food. It also doesn't need to be identical every time you make it. That's one of the reasons I love recipes like this for cooking from a home-canned pantry.
Ingredients
- 1 quart home-canned sweet potatoes, with the liquid
- 1 quart home-canned white potatoes, with the liquid
- 1 quart tomato sauce or pasta sauce
- 1 quart beef broth or water
- 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 pint home-canned beef, with the liquid
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Fresh parsley or basil, optional
- Parmesan cheese, for serving, optional
Instructions
- Open your jars and add them (including the liquid) to a large stockpot.
- Add the frozen mixed vegetables.
- Pour in the broth or water.
- Add Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Stir everything together and bring the soup to a boil.
- Boil at least 10 minutes. *A note about home-canned foods: USDA guidance recommends boiling home-processed low-acid canned foods for 10 minutes before serving, adding 1 additional minute for every 1,000 feet of elevation. Always begin with food that was properly canned using a tested method.
- Adjust the seasonings and consistency to your preference.
- Ladle into bowls and top with fresh herbs and Parmesan cheese, if desired.
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Ingredients
You don’t have to follow this ingredient list exactly. Think of this as a basic formula that you can adjust based on what’s already in your pantry.
- 1 quart home-canned sweet potatoes, with the liquid
- 1 quart home-canned white potatoes, with the liquid
- 1 quart tomato sauce or pasta sauce
- 1 quart beef broth or water
- 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 pint home-canned beef, with the liquid
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Fresh parsley or basil, optional
- Parmesan cheese, for serving, optional
A Note About the Canning Liquid
I use the liquid from my home-canned potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beef rather than automatically draining the jars. It adds liquid and flavor to the soup and means there’s one less ingredient I need to add. If you prefer a thicker soup, start with less additional broth or water and add more as needed.
Directions
Stovetop Instructions
- Open your jars and add them (including the liquid) to a large stockpot.
- Add the frozen mixed vegetables.
- Pour in the broth or water.
- Add Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Stir everything together and bring the soup to a boil.
- Boil at least 10 minutes. *A note about home-canned foods: USDA guidance recommends boiling home-processed low-acid canned foods for 10 minutes before serving, adding 1 additional minute for every 1,000 feet of elevation. Always begin with food that was properly canned using a tested method.
- Adjust the seasonings and consistency to your preference.
- Ladle into bowls and top with fresh herbs and Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Equipment Used
Try serving it with:
- Cornbread
- Garlic bread
- Homemade bread
- Dinner rolls
- Crackers
- A simple green salad
- Grilled cheese sandwiches
Easy Substitutions Using What You Have
Don’t Have Home-Canned Sweet Potatoes?
Leave them out and use additional white potatoes, another vegetable, or something else.
Don’t Have Home-Canned Beef?
You can substitute:
- Cooked ground beef
- Leftover roast beef
- Cooked chicken
- Pork
- Venison
- Beans
Don’t Have Home-Canned Tomato Sauce?
Use store-bought tomato sauce, pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, or another tomato-based sauce that works with the flavors you’re using.
Need to Change the Vegetables?
Absolutely. Use the vegetables your family will actually eat. Green beans, carrots, corn and peas all work well. This is also a good opportunity to use a partially finished bag of frozen vegetables.
Do I Need to Use All Home-Canned Ingredients?
Of course not.
Any of these ingredients can be replaced with store-bought canned, frozen, or fresh versions. The recipe is meant to work with what you have. That’s especially useful if you’re just beginning to build your home-canned pantry and don’t have every ingredient preserved yet.
What Other Meals Can I Make With Home-Canned Beef?
Home-canned beef is useful for soups, stews, beef and gravy, pot pies, sandwiches, casseroles, skillet meals, and other quick canned beef recipes.
Make Your Pantry Work for You
If you want to build a pantry specifically for meals like this, some of the most versatile foods to preserve are:
- White potatoes – Here’s a tutorial
- Sweet potatoes
- Beef
- Tomato sauce
- Broth
These are the kinds of basic ingredients that can become several different meals instead of locking you into one finished recipe. That’s the beauty of recipes using home canned food, you can make a lot of meals out of just a handful of ingredients on the shelf.
Want to start pressure-canning? Use one of these to help build up your stash.
