Ila Good’s Vegetable Soup Recipe

Contributed by Darin Good, a major fan

(This soup is so good that we have knowingly exposed our children to viruses just hoping we’d get Grandma’s soup out of the deal if they got sick.) Jack Good insists there is a soup pump at Ila’s that just pumps this stuff out. However, if the pump goes dry, here is the actual recipe that primes it again:

First get a pot. A BIG pot.
Brown a couple of pounds of beef stew meat. (I cut it into smaller pieces.)
Put a diced onion in the beef after it browns and cook it awhile.
Add some water and simmer till it gets tender or you get too hungry to wait any longer.
Add a can or two of diced tomatoes.
Add a few diced potatoes, carrots, a can of cannelloni beans or whatever you like.
A half cup of barley is good if you like it.
I usually put in a bag of frozen mixed vegetables and a couple of cans of beef broth.
Throw in a cup or two of frozen okra near the end of the cooking time.
Put in anything else you like, such as frozen corn & lima beans
I like to cook a cup or two of pasta and add it about the time I put in the okra.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!
Love, Ila

Note from family members: If you are able to score a jug of this soup from Ila, always return the jar once empty--it's possible that it will come back refilled in the near future. This soup can cure almost any thing (broken hearts, really bad days at work, bad grades, actual illness, etc); we have resorted to shameless ploys to get some.