Chunky Vegetable (beef) Soup

It's a 4 star soup for our family.  Even my 4 yr old ate almost the whole bowl!
I like this version of vegetable beef soup.  I also like using fresh herbs
I noted at the bottom the things that I did differently than the site I found the recipe on.

chunky vegetable soup

recipe adapted from Donna Hay

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

2 stalks of celery, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

1 tbsp fresh thyme

sea salt and fresh ground pepper

2 x cans of chopped tomatoes (14oz)

1 1/2 litres of water or stock

1 cup of pasta (your choice) - I did 1 1/2 cups of rigatoni

In a large sauce pan over medium heat add the oil, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme and salt and pepper and cook until just soft. Add the tomatoes and water and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the pasta and cook for another 8-10 min. Serves 4-6.

I made this a little differently.  My husband likes meat in his soup, so I bought some stew beef (already cut into cubes), I cooked it in the olive oil until brown before adding the veggies.  I added 1 more tbsp of olive oil when I put the vegetables in with the beef.  I also added 3 tsp of beef bouillon to the water to give it a little more flavor.

Here's a link to the original site:

http://butterflyfoodie.blogspot.com/2011/01/beat-cold.html