Little Sprouts Learning

Cooking with kids is a great activity. It teaches fine motor skills, critical thinking, math, science, and a multitude of other things. Kids are more likely to try new things, if they help prepare them and they just love to cook. Click here to see more reasons why cooking with kids is a great idea!

We make lots of soups around Little Sprouts because they are healthy, the kids love them, and many different things can be used to make them. Soup is a “whatever you have on hand” kinda dish. Soup is one of the most popular dishes on my menu.

The basics for making up soup recipes starts with your main item. This can be beans, meat or a grain. For our daycare menu, we usually start with chicken or ground beef. Once you have your main item chosen, the soup can be prepared basically the same way every time. You should choose a starch before you begin cooking as well. If I use noodles, I will usually not add potatoes to the soup.

Step 1, chop an onion. As much as my daughter hates to admit it, most good dishes start with an onion.  

Step 2, heat up your soup pot with a tablespoon or two of oil. We use olive oil at Little Sprouts most of the time.

Step 3, cook the onion on low until it’s translucent.

Step 4, add meat and cook and stir it until browned.

Step 5, add your longest cooking vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and celery.

Step 6, add some soup stock or water and bring soup to a boil. Cook until vegetables are fork tender.

Step 7, add shorter cooking vegetables such as peas, corn, broccoli, or whatever you have on hand that you want to use.

Step 8, add salt and pepper to taste, a clove of crushed garlic, and a half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of thyme, sage, oregano, or another herb you like.

Step 9, cook until all veggies are done.

For this soup, we used potatoes, corn, carrots, and green beans. The meat was ground beef. It was delicious!

Little Sprouts Vegetable Beef Soup

2015-03-16 18:29:07

Delicious, healthy soup using ground beef that kids and adults will enjoy.

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Ingredients

1. 2 T. Olive oil
2. 1 onion
3. 2 potatoes
4. 1 pound ground beef
5. 3 carrots
6. 1/2 c. peas
7. 1 c. corn
8. 1 c. fresh green beans
9. 4 c. chicken stock
10. salt and pepper to taste
11. 1 tsp. thyme
12. 1 clove garlic

Instructions

1. Chop onion.
2. Add olive oil to pan and heat on medium heat.
3. Add onion to pan, cook and stir until translucent.
4. Add ground beef and cook until browned.
5. Add green beans, diced carrots, diced potatoes, and chicken stock.
6. Bring soup to a boil and cook until potatoes are fork tender.
7. Add peas, corn, crushed garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.
8. Cook until vegetables are done.

By Christina Kamp

Little Sprouts Learning https://littlesproutslearning.co/