One of my absolute favorite meals is homemade vegetable soup. I like a good hearty rustic soup with huge chunks of vegetables and a tomato base. The kicker to this recipe is that I use V8 juice as the base, a whole jug! The flavor is amazing and rich and delicious. Trust me! I can’t stand drinking V8 by itself, but I could LIVE on this soup!
Update: So I updated the recipe and added a new picture. I tend to not use potatoes anymore, but I do add several other veggies that I have in the freezer and fridge to bulk up this soup and make it healthy. If low carb, use vegetables like zucchini, bell pepper, edamame, cabbage, spinach, etc. Use this soup to use up leftover vegetables! I also keep a ziplock back of leftover carrots and peppers from various recipes that didn’t use up what I had and before they go bad. I add to the bag as necessary in the freezer! I use a lot of those frozen leftover veggies in my soup. I also removed sugar from the recipe as I no longer feel that is necessary. The basil added, and a long and low cook time mellows out any bitterness of the tomatoes. No need to add sugar!
You will need:
1 64oz container of V8 Original Vegetable Juice
4 cups water
1 medium onion diced
Minced Garlic
1.5-2 lbs stew meat or chuck roast cut into chunks
2-3 Russet Potatoes, chopped
1 bag of frozen Cut Green Beans
1 bag of frozen Kernel Corn
1 bag of frozen sliced carrots
Any additional vegetables you like (Frozen Spinach, Zucchini, Okra, Celery, Cabbage, Edamame, Peas, Kidney Beans, Red Bell Pepper, etc)
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
1Tbls Basil (dried or fresh)
1Tbls garlic powder
1Tbls onion powder
Salt and Pepper
Cook the beef in a large soup pot. I prefer my Lodge Dutch Oven, I’ve had it for 7 years and make all of my soups in it! Drain the beef and add in the garlic and onions and saute until the onions are translucent. Then add in your chopped potatoes. I like my soup rustic, so I leave the peels on. This is totally optional.
Add in the container of V8 juice, water(more or less depending on your pot), tomatoes, basil, bay leaves, onion and garlic powders, salt, and pepper. I cannot stress enough that this is a taste as you go recipe. As the soup cooks, the flavors will meld together. I taste several times knowing, in the beginning, the broth may taste kind of bitter but will be amazing in the end. Let cook for at least 30 minutes.
Add in all of the vegetables you like. I personally do not like okra, but you can add that if you like. I normally add frozen peas, but I didn’t realize I had none on hand, but I did have frozen edamame, so that went in instead! In this batch, I did corn, green beans, carrots, edamame and a can of diced tomatoes. If you add in frozen spinach, which I highly suggest, do it near the end of cooking.
Let simmer for 4 hours. The longer it cooks the better, taste occasionally to make sure seasoning is to your liking.
Enjoy! You won’t believe how good it is the next day too 🙂
Email Michelle at michelle@theneighborhoodmoms.com
- Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Crumble - September 25, 2019
- Strawberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt Popsicles - June 5, 2019
- The Jelly Bean Prayer Jar and Coloring Sheet Printable - March 20, 2019
Mmm I love homemade soup! This looks like a delicious recipe. That star-shaped bowl just adds to the fun of eating soup on a cold gloomy day!
lol, we have a ton of mismatched bowls, but this one is my favorite. It makes everything a little more fun to eat 🙂
I Can’t Wait To Try It Looks So Delicious!!
I never knew you could make soups with V8 juice but I guess it totally makes sense. I will have to give a soup a try since I love V8 juice!
That looks really good and comforting.
wow…that looks really delicious! love all the veggies you have in there, too!
Pinning this! That soup looks so delicious and I bet my kids wouldn’t even realize how many veggies they were eating.
what a cute little star bowl! I bet my kids would love this. It is still SO cold outside 🙂
Mmmmm!!
That looks so yummy!!
Pinning this 🙂
This looks very yummy. I haven’t made beef vegetable soup in a long time. We did just have beef stew.
I love vegetable soup and I’ll have to try this one the next time I need a quick, but tasty comfort soup on a cold winter (because this winter IS NEVER GOING TO END!) night!
This just looks so feel good and soothing. I had soup tonight for dinner but it was from a can. It was delicious, but nothing like yours!
Nice looking pot of soup. I could go for a bowl.
Yum! I’d use the Spicy V8 and give it a kick!
I have tried that and it’s a bit too spicy for me! And the 4 year old has sensitive tastes so I stick to the original and my husband likes to kick it up by adding cayenne to his bowl.
Mmmm, looks tasty and not terribly hard to make. Thank you…will warm us up on these cold winter nights.
I love V8. I’d have never thought to use it in a soup! This sounds really, really good!
How smart! I’ve never even considered cooking with V8. I need to remember this next time I make veggie soup.
This looks so good and filling. perfect for a chilly winter day
Yum, I bet that is good! And I usually find soups and stews to be better the next day. 🙂
This looks really yummy!
This looks just like my soup – but a little different! YUMMY!
What an interesting idea to use the V8. I think my husband would love this recipe!
Sounds delicious! I love recipes that are easy to customize since I am pretty picky sometimes.
I haven’t had veggie beef soup in a long time, but love the stuff. Thanks for the reminder to make some!
I like to add at least 4 different meats to my veggie stews. Beef, turkey, elk, and deer (or near if available). Avoid rabbit, llama, and squirrel for the stew. The gaminess of the meat really overpowers the vegetables.
I really adore beef soup. I have used V8 in the cabbage soup diet and it really is a great base.
Now, this is the 3rd delicious recipe I’ve pinned tonight! I’ve got a big jar of V8 to use up and now I know what I’ll do with it 🙂
Do i boil my meat n potatoes first in water then add my veggies n v8 juice
Nope! Just add the potatoes right in after browning the meat in the pot. I add the softer veggies like peas later so they don’t get mushy.
I make this all of the time. I’ve been dieting since 1 January 2017. It’s March 11 and I have went from 192 to 168. I eat this every day for lunch (about 2 cups). Very satisfying and I have not gotten sick of it yet. I like putting a lot of pepper in it, so today I used a whole bottle of V8 and about a half a bottle of the spicy V8. It’s still cooking, so I don’t know what the result is yet. I wanted to use just the spicy V8 but I figured I had better start off slow. In addition to my frozen mixed vegetables, I always add extra frozen Lima beans, frozen corn, fresh carrots, and fresh green beans. I am probably doing myself a disservice with all of those starches. I also add beef broth sometimes instead of water.
I make this soup a lot during the winter. The only differences is that I use ground beef in place of the stew meat, I use half regular V8 & half spicy, and I make it in a crockpot (or slow cooker). I brown the ground beef the night before. While it is browning I peel & dice my potatoes & carrots & add them to the crock. I then add my other veggies (we like corn, beans, peas, pearl onions, celery, diced green peppers and 1 or 2 diced jalapeno peppers) & black pepper. I then dump the browned ground beef over the top of the veggies and then add the V8 juices. I DO NOT mix this up as I want my potatoes & carrots in the bottom to cook. I then place the whole crock in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning (around 7am) I place the crock in the pot and set it on low for the day while I am at work. My husband will come in (he is a farmer/rancher) mid afternoon and give it a stir. By 6pm we are eating this wonderful soup! I have on occasion added pearl barley in over the veggies & before the hamburger to add to the flavor. This is so versatile as you can add in just the veggies that your family likes!
Directions are missing the canned tomatoes garlic and onion powder.. guess it’s common sense for most but not for some
Sorry about that! I edited the recipe a bit and must have cut out some things that I didn’t intend! You can do it all with the v8 juice part. I updated the recipe to reflect. Thanks for the catch!