Thirteen ingredients and an hour and thirty-five minutes, nearly all of it a gentle unattended simmer.
The beef is browned in batches at the start. Crowded into one layer it steams instead, and the fond that browning leaves is most of the colour in the finished broth.
Why This Recipe Works
- Browning in batches builds fond rather than steaming the cubes grey.
- Onion and celery cooked in that fond carry its flavour through the pot.
- Tomato paste cooked briefly deepens the broth's colour without adding fruit.
- A gentle simmer over an hour turns chuck fork-tender rather than tough.
- Leaving the liquid unthickened is what keeps this a soup and not a stew.
Ingredient Notes
- Beef chuck, cut into 1-inch cubes
- A pound and a half. Cubes rather than ground, and chuck specifically — it has the connective tissue that an hour of simmering turns tender.
- Yukon Gold potatoes and rutabaga
- Twelve ounces and ten ounces. These are the two different roots in the bowl: the pale chunks and the yellow cubes are not the same vegetable.
- Tomato paste
- Two tablespoons. It is where the brown-red colour comes from — there are no tomato pieces anywhere in this soup.
- Chopped parsley
- A third of a cup, in at the end. That is a large amount for a garnish, and the finished soup is heavily scattered with it.
How to Make It
Beef browned in batches, all returned to the pot
Brown beef in oil in a soup pot; work in batches and return all beef to the pot.
Onion and celery cooked five minutes
Add onion and celery and cook 5 minutes.
Tomato paste and thyme, then broth and all three roots
Stir in tomato paste and thyme, then add broth, potatoes, rutabaga, carrots, salt, and pepper.
Boiled, then simmered gently until beef and roots are tender
Bring to a boil, reduce to a gentle simmer, and cook 55 to 70 minutes until the beef and roots are tender.
Kept brothy — not thickened
Keep the liquid brothy; do not thicken.
Finished with parsley
Finish with parsley.
One Pot, Ninety Minutes, and Nothing Goes In Together
Beef chuck needs an hour to become tender. Onion needs five minutes. Parsley needs none at all. The order below is what a single pot does with that spread, and the two roots are in it as two separate things rather than one.
First, and IN BATCHES
1 1/2 lb of BEEF CHUCK in 1-inch CUBES, browned in 1 tbsp of oil
In batches is the instruction and it is worth the extra ten minutes. All 1 1/2 lb in the pot at once drops the temperature, releases moisture and steams the cubes grey - and the browning is not cosmetic here, it is the fond that every later stage is built on. All of it goes back in afterwards. Use cubes rather than ground or shredded beef.
Into the fond, 5 minutes
1 diced yellow ONION and 2 sliced CELERY ribs
Both are visible components the title names neither of. Five minutes in what the beef left behind is enough to soften them and to lift the fond off the base of the pot, which is how that colour gets into the broth rather than staying stuck to the pan.
Briefly, before any liquid
2 tbsp TOMATO PASTE and 1 tsp dried THYME
The paste gets its moment in the dry hot pot, which cooks off its raw edge and deepens it. This is the entire source of the BROWN-RED colour the broth has - there are NO TOMATO PIECES in this soup, and the paste is why none are needed.
Then everything else, and the long simmer
6 cups BEEF BROTH, 12 oz YUKON GOLD POTATOES in chunks, 10 oz RUTABAGA in cubes, 3 thickly sliced CARROTS, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper
Brought to a boil then dropped to a GENTLE simmer for 55 to 70 MINUTES. Gentle is the operative word: chuck at a hard boil tightens and stays tough, and the roots break apart. The two roots are POTATO and RUTABAGA, going in together and staying visibly distinct in the bowl.
The thing that does NOT happen
no roux, no slurry, no reduction - the liquid is KEPT BROTHY
Step 5 exists to rule something out. This pot has every ingredient a stew has, and stopping short of thickening it is the single decision that keeps it a soup.
Off the heat
1/3 cup of chopped PARSLEY
A third of a cup is a lot of parsley, and the finished soup is heavily scattered with it rather than dusted. In at the very end so it stays green - stirred in earlier over seventy minutes it would go grey and taste of nothing.
Success Tips
- Brown the beef in batches even though it takes longer; crowded cubes steam.
- Keep the simmer gentle — a hard boil toughens chuck rather than tenderising it.
- Resist thickening at the end; brothy is the point of this one.
Serving Ideas
Six bowls of brown-red broth with cubes of browned beef, chunks of pale potato and yellow rutabaga, thick carrot, sliced celery and softened onion, heavily scattered with chopped parsley.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the two different root vegetables?
Yukon Gold potato and rutabaga. They look different in the bowl because they are different — twelve ounces of potato in chunks and ten ounces of rutabaga in cubes.
Should the liquid be thickened?
No. Step 5 says so explicitly. Thickening would turn this into a stew, and it is written as a brothy soup.
Why is the broth red-brown with no tomato in it?
Two tablespoons of tomato paste, cooked in before the liquid goes in. There are no chopped tomatoes, peas or green beans in this soup.
