When it’s fluffing cold out (just like now after this latest Nor’easter) there’s nothing better than coming in after shoveling to a warm soup… or maybe to some this might be considered a stew? Call it what you will, the point is this: it is hearty and delicious!

To start off with, you can make this soup organic – or not. You can make this soup with or without wine. You can make it with or without Filet Mignon – choose another cut of beef if you prefer. And you can put as many, or as few, vegetables in it as you like. There’s no right or wrong answer, and I am the quintessential “a little of this, a little of that” cook and baker. Sometimes it works in my favor, and sometimes it results in an awful fail. But the great thing with this recipe of mine is that there’s no right or wrong – it is all about personal preference!

The ingredients you’ll need:

  • Filet Mignon (I’ll discuss below the quantity)

  • 2 medium sweet onions

  • 1 tbs butter (salted or unsalted, your choice)

  • 3-4 stalks of celery

  • 3-4 carrots

  • 3 medium-sized potatoes

  • ⅓-½ bottle of red wine

  • 3-4 cups water (depending on how liquid-y you want it)

  • 32 oz. organic beef stock

Spices (to taste):

  • Oregano

  • Herbes de Provence

  • Rosemary

  • Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning

  • Pepper

A few explanations

Before I start giving you the play-by-play of how to make this super easy and super delicious soup, I want to just go over a quick few things. To start off with, I do use Filet Mignon in this. The reason is simple and threefold: 1. it is the best cut of meat, 2. It is the only red meat that I eat and I eat it extremely seldomly, and 3. You don’t need to have a lot of meat in this soup for it to be enough. With that said, when I buy my Filet Mignon at the store, I usually encounter them packaged either as Filet steaks or an elongated shape. You can use either of those, I usually prefer the elongated-shaped meat. I neglected to check the exact oz. measurement of the meat that I used for this soup, but it wasn’t a lot – it cost just under $11. I know this amount will vary from store-to-store but you should have plenty of Filet Mignon meat in the $10-15 range. And here is why: you’re going to cube the meat into about 1 inch size cubes. So that yields enough meat for your soup.

Another thing you might have noticed about this recipe is that I don’t use any salt – all of my spices are dried herbs and my Mrs. Dash’s products are salt-free. But there’s plenty of flavor! If you feel that you need salt, I noted that you can use salted butter if you feel it necessary. For my taste, there’s enough salt in the beef stock and so everything else is salt-free.

I put red wine as optional in this recipe because not everyone likes it. BUT the way that I have red wine in this recipe, all of the alcohol gets cooked off and so there isn’t any alcohol flavor in the soup. Also, if you’re like me and don’t always drink all of your wine, instead of dumping it down the drain (which is awful, I know) I use my “old” and opened wine in soups such as this – sometimes I even save my old wines and specifically make a soup so they don’t go to waste.

Here’s what you’re going to do:

  1. Cut up your onions however you like them. I had my onion pieces be pretty large – not thick, but large enough for my taste. You’re also going to cube up the Filet Mignon in 1 inch cubes as I discussed above. Put both in your soup pot.

  2. Add the tablespoon of butter – it will melt as you start cooking the meat and onion – and add your herbs and spices. I’m pretty generous with my spices because they don’t have salt. I in particular am generous with the Herbes de Provence, Oregano and the Mrs. Dash spice. Cook on high, or medium-high until the meat has browned and onions have softened.

  3. Add the wine and let it simmer a little bit – this is where the alcohol gets cooked off.

  4. Chop up your celery, carrots and potatoes. You can chop them up as fine or coarsely as you’d like them in your soup. I prefer to have them medium-sized, so they’re not too big of a mouth-full. You’ll notice in the picture that my potatoes are a little on the larger side, but I prefer them a little smaller (note to self for next time). Then add your chopped veggies to the soup.

  5. Add your beef stock and water next. Mix it all and bring to a boil. I let mine boil for a few minutes, then I lower the heat and let it simmer while my vegetables cook.

  6. After about 10-15 minutes of simmering is when I give it the taste-test, the broth that is. I found that my soup on this occasion needed a dash more flavor so I added a sprinkle or two more of my spices and a couple of churns of pepper, gave it a stir or two and then let it simmer for another couple of minutes. It was perfect after that.

  7. Serve with a fresh baguette toasted with butter – or whatever else you enjoy on the side of your soup. Enjoy!

Add your cubed Filet Mignon, cut onions and tablespoon of butter to your soup pot

Add your spices

Cook the meat until it has browned and the onions have softened

My “old” wine – I had ½ a bottle

Let the wine simmer

Chop up your celery and carrots to a desirable size

Chop your potatoes to a desirable size – notice that mine are a little too large here

Add your veggies, water and beef broth and bring to a boil, then let simmer

Serve and enjoy!