Tri-tip Steak Soup

It's no secret to my friends that I LOVE Tri-tip. It's an amazing cut of beef that is a luscious steak dinner one night and transforms into so many different things the next that it is really a frugal cooks' dream.  Here's what I did with our left over tri-tip last night!

 I made soup. It was really good and even the kids raved. What I love about soup is that you can pretty much use any veggies you have on hand.  I just try to "cook a rainbow" of veggies, so an orange, a green, a white, a red, etc. Other options would be asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potato, parsnip, turnips, beets. . .The choices are endless!  If you don't have potatoes throw in some rice for the starch instead.

Here is what's in the bowl above:

Tri-tip Steak Soup

• 1 pound of Grilled Tri-tip cut into bite sized cubes.
• 4 med. potatoes peeled and cubed
• 3 large carrots peeled and cubed
• 1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of green beans (or a cup of fresh or frozen green beans)
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 med onion diced
• 2 T minced garlic
• 1 14 oz can of tomato sauce
• 4 cups of veg. stock (or 2c veg and 2c beef broth)
• 2 T butter or olive oil
• 2T red wine (or if you don't use alcohol just use some of the broth or stock) for deglazing
• 2 T prime rib seasoning (rosemary, black pepper, salt, paprika, garlic)
• 1 T kosher salt
• 1T Steak Sauce -- THIS is what I think makes it taste like "steak soup"
• 2T brown gravy mix (to help thicken up the broth)
• Fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

• Heat butter or oil in a stock pot over medium heat. 
• Saute Onion until translucent then add the garlic to caramelize. 
• Deglaze the pan with the wine or some of the stock.
• Pour in the tomato sauce, stocks, seasonings, and steak sauce. Bring to a boil
• Add in the carrots and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the potatoes.
• Cook at a slow boil for 15 minutes and then add the soft veggies (tomatoes, green beans, mushrooms etc).
• Ladle out 1/4 cup of the broth and whisk it with the gravy mix, then stir back into the pot.
• Cook until the potatoes and carrots are fork tender.
• IF you want to use rice instead of potatoes I recommend cooking the rice first and adding it in the last 5 minutes of cooking or you will loose all of your broth to the rice!

Serve with a big slice of buttered crusty bread and enjoy!!