If You Can Brown Ground Beef: Easy Lasagna Soup

This is quite possibly the easiest soup recipe I've ever made - outside of opening a can of chicken noodle soup when I'm sick. And when you're sick, who wants to cook? "Not I," said Buzzard.

Sorry for the tangent - anyway, the weather is warm and the end of soup season is near. So I thought I'd try this one before spring is in full-swing and it's too warm for soup. My coworker is a huge fan of the lasagna soup he gets from a deli in DC and inspired me to try it (thanks, Joe). Thanks to some googling, I found this recipe from Mostly Homemade Mom. But per usual Buzzard style, I have some suggested changes (in parentheses).

Simple Lasagna Soup
- 1 lb ground beef (could substitute 1/2 lb with ground pork sausage)
- 28 oz can diced tomatoes (I would suggest cutting this in half)
- 15 oz jar pasta sauce - we are a Prego family
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning (I doubled this)
- 2 1/2 cups bowtie pasta, cooked until just about done
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese (I used cojack)

 

Brown and drain ground beef in stock pot, and return to pot. 

About 1/2 way through the browning process, I thought "Dang, this would be good with sausage, too." So, you could use 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 pork sausage and I bet it would be OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS.

Add tomatoes, pasta sauce, broth, water, and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Some seriously good smells were filling up my kitchen at this point.

 

Stir in cooked pasta and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Almost ready!

Serve with crusty bread and mozzarella cheese.

Your mouth will thank you for eating this soup.

 Seriously, it was so great. The Ninja is ridiculously hard to please with meals - "fine", "ok" and "good" are his general responses as to whether or not he enjoyed dinner. But every once in a while his face lights up with delight at the flavor hurricane invading his taste buds. This was one of those times. Other times include my fried chicken, beer drenched pork chops, mustard pork chops and rice (recipe soon), engagement chicken, homemade pretzel bites and my imposter Red Lobster cheese biscuits (which are BETTER than the real thing).

I'd love to get an influx of new recipes to try - please share your favorite concoctions below!

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~