How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
There's nothing like a warm, hearty soup to banish the winter blues, especially as snow piles up. My mother's cheeseburger soup always gave me the energy boost I needed when the weather took a turn for the worse. The savory hamburger meat and velvety cheese chunks make it a warm, filling meal.
INGREDIENTS:
2 carrots
1 onion
2 stalks celery
8 c. potatoes, diced
3 cans chicken broth
1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. butter
1/2 lb. hamburger meat
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 lb. Velveeta cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown the meat over a stove and drain. After setting the meat aside, chop the potatoes into small chunks and set them aside also. Then, prepare the vegetables by grating the carrots and chopping the celery and onions.
Melt 1/4 cup of the butter in a large, five-quart soup pot, and saute the onions and the celery until the vegetables turn clear. Add the cooked hamburger meat and chopped potatoes to the pot along with the chicken broth. Simmer the mixture until the potatoes are tender.
While the soup is cooking, take the remaining butter and mix it with the flour over low heat in a saucepan. Stir until thick, then set aside. Once the potatoes are cooked and tender, add the flour mixture to thicken the soup and stir well.
Cut the Velveeta cheese into blocks and add them to the soup, along with the milk. Stir occasionally until the cheese chunks are melted. Right before serving, take the soup off the heat and add the sour cream, stirring until the sour cream is completely mixed in. Serve with French bread — a great side for dipping.
Make this recipe your own by adjusting the amount of broth and cheese to your liking. You can also play with the amount of hamburger meat and potatoes to make the soup more or less hearty. Either way, it's sure to keep you warm through cold weather.
