It's been a soup kind of month for me. I've been craving different kinds of soup. I've tried a recipe similar to this in the past that I found on the internet, however it was so salty it wasn't very edible. However, I wasn't giving up. I was craving a beefy asparagus and rice soup. So, I had to modify a couple different recipes I found and created the following which turned out quite well. The bonus is that it is not that salty at all.
Asparagus-Rice Soup with Sirloin...the recipe
4 tablespoons of olive oil (a good flavored olive oil similar to what you'd use for bread dipping)
1 large white onion diced
1 1/2 stalks of celery diced
1 clove of garlic minced
4 cups of beef stock (I used 4 beef bouillon cubes with 4 cups of boiling water)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown rice
4 ounce sirloin steak cubed
8 ounces of thin asparagus spears
Salt and pepper
Fresh chopped parsley
Wash and dry all the produce and prep as follows to speed up the cooking process.
Mince the garlic.
Dice the onions and celery.
Cut off the hard ends of the asparagus (however don't throw them out, freeze them in a plastic baggie and use them to make vegetable broth). Then slice them diagonally.
Cube the sirloin steak (mine came out more like rectangles and that's okay, it doesn't affect the flavor).
Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil to a 4 quart sauce pan and heat on medium to low heat.
Once the oil is heated, add the onions, celery and garlic. Salt to taste.
Add the beef stock.
Add the rice.
Stir well and bring to boil. Once it is boiling, cover, lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, melt 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter in a skillet pan on medium to low heat.
Once melted, add the sirloin and brown on all sides for 4 minutes. It's okay if the meat is still a little pink at the end of the 4 minutes, the steak will be thoroughly cooked when the recipe is complete.
Once the steak is browned, add the asparagus. Do not drain the fat or butter.
Stir the asparagus coating it with the butter and beef fat. Once the asparagus is coated, let it cook in the pan without stirring for 4 minutes.
After the first 4 minutes, cook for another 4 minutes stirring regularly so as to not let the asparagus get browned. Remove from heat and put to the side. Once the rice and soup mixture has simmered for 25 minutes, add the asparagus and beef mixture and stir well.
Add fresh ground black pepper to taste and salt if needed.
Simmer again for another 10-15 minutes until the asparagus is tender. Once the time is up, remove from heat, garnish with parsley and serve with saltine crackers.
Enjoy...
Serves 4.
