As autumn settles in and the weather turns cool, there is nothing like a good hot soup to warm you up. Why is it called Baseball Soup? For years Dawn, our marketing director, and her husband were blessed with two very active and athletically gifted children with good hand-eye coordination. They were both very good at playing baseball and began with Little League and played all the way through high school. Our daughter played fastpitch softball and our son played baseball. This meant a lot of practices and usually games at different fields, often in different cities. Baseball season starts each year when there is still a possibility of snow in the forecast, and usually plenty of rain, thus it meant for many days coming home to do muddy laundry and then warm up our insides with whatever was in the crockpot. One of our favorites was a nice bowl of this hot homemade vegetable beef soup, we dubbed “Baseball Soup” because we made it often every year during baseball season. We absolutely loved watching our kids play ball, rooting them on from the sidelines, volunteering to keep score, or rake the base paths. Those days are treasured memories and this recipe brings it all back. Enjoy!
Dawn’s Baseball Soup
The wonderful thing about soup recipes is that they are incredibly versatile. Don’t feel you “have” to have butter beans – use navy beans, cannolini beans, or even kidney beans if you only have those. You can also toss in some green beans or chopped kale if your kids will eat them.
3/4 pound hamburger, browned and drained
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 medium onion
2 carrots, diced
1 can butter beans
1 med-large potato, peeled and diced
1/2 box low-sodium chicken broth
2 bay leaves
poultry seasoning
small rosemary sprig or small pinch of dried rosemary
1/2 tsp onion powder
small thyme sprig or small pinch of dried thyme
1/2 tsp fines herbs or mixed italian seasoning
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp beef base bouillion (I used “Better than Bouillion”)
Water (about 4 cups)
On the stove, brown the hamburger and drain off oil. Add chopped onions to the meat and cook until soft. De-glaze the pan with red wine, chicken broth, or water (your choice) and scrape up any cooked bits in the pan. Transfer all to the crockpot. Add herbs, drained beans, tomato paste, carrots, broth, and boullion. Add enough water to make a soup. Cook on low all day, or on high during a practice. Season with salt & pepper as needed.
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