Plaza Steak Soup

This is the kind of soup you make when the house is about to fill up with cold, hungry people. Two pounds of ground beef, a 20-cup pot, and enough vegetables to feed a crowd. It’s thick, beefy, and built to stick to your ribs.

The roux base sets this apart from a standard vegetable beef soup. Half a cup of butter and flour cooked into a smooth paste, then thinned with hot water, gives the broth a velvety body that coats every spoonful. It’s closer to a stew’s consistency than a thin broth.

Rinsing the browned beef under hot water after draining is an old-school trick. It strips away residual grease that draining alone misses, giving you a cleaner-tasting soup without sacrificing any of the beef flavor that already seared into the meat.

The recipe deliberately skips salt because the beef bouillon granules bring plenty of sodium on their own. Taste before adding any, especially if you’re using a salty bouillon brand.

Kitchen Tips

• Brown the beef in batches if your skillet isn’t large enough. Crowding the pan steams the meat instead of browning it, and you lose that caramelized flavor.
• Make this the night before serving. Like most hearty soups, the flavors develop and deepen overnight in the fridge.
• This freezes beautifully for up to 3 months. Cool completely before portioning into freezer bags.

Variations

• Add diced potatoes for an even heartier, more filling version.
• Stir in cooked egg noodles or barley during the last 15 minutes for a stew-like texture.
• Use ground turkey instead of beef for a lighter take that still benefits from the roux-thickened base.