This hearty and satisfying soup is packed with lean bison and plenty of fresh vegetables. Freeze ahead for busy weeknight meals or make a big batch for brown bag lunches.
It’s the strangest thing but I’m pretty confident I eat just as much soup during the warm summer months as I do in the middle of winter. Is that weird? Don’t answer.
After thinking about it, I’ve decided it actually makes a lot of sense for several reasons. First, soup doesn’t require me to turn on the oven like roasting a chicken or baking a casserole so it’s a great way to keep the kitchen from over heating.
Second, farmers markets are overflowing with fresh produce and soup is a great way to use up any vegetables you have on hand. Since I am incapable of purchasing small amounts of said produce during trips to the farmers market, we always end up with a few items that don’t get eaten right away.
Third, similar to using overly ripe fruits in smoothies, soup is the perfect vehicle for vegetables that might be a few days past their prime. Take that, food waste!
Lastly, we all want to look better in our swimsuits, right? Well soups are the ideal health food. Not only are they full of vitamins and nutrients but soup is extremely filling and won’t leave you hungry an hour later.
As a side note, I’m happy to report that this soup was the first whole meal we fed our littlest one! I used my amazing KitchenAid Cordless Immersion Blender and pureed some of the soup that had cooled down a bit. Jacob devoured it and we had plenty of leftovers to eat in the coming days. It was a huge hit!
What is your favorite soup to make in the summer? I would love to hear from you.
Your spoon is waiting.
Bison Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 20 ounces ground bison (or ground beef)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 medium onion (diced)
- 2 carrots (diced)
- 3 celery stalks (diced)
- 4 cups beef broth (low sodium)
- 46 ounce container V8 or tomato juice
- 4 cups green cabbage (roughly chopped)
- 1 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
- 1 cup green peas (fresh or frozen)
- fresh parsley (for garnish)
Instructions
- Heat a large soup pot over medium high heat and spray with cooking spray. Add ground bison, salt, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce. Use a wooden spoon to break down meat and incorporate the spices.
- Brown bison until cooked through, 8-10minutes, or until nicely browned and caramelized. Remove cooked bison from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add diced onion, carrots and celery to the pan along with a pinch of salt and stir until vegetables have softened, another 7-9 minutes.
- Pour in beef broth and V8 then bring to a boil. Stir in cabbage, corn and peas and bring back to a boil. Stir in reserved cooked bison. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Serve with freshly minced parsley.
Nutrition
Want more easy and flavorful soup recipes?? Head over to my Pinterest board!
I, too, can eat soup at any time of year. I run three farmers markets and we have a bison farmer at two of them. I make a double batch of this soup several times a year and freeze the other half. I agree V8 is a key ingredient. Good stuff! Thank you!
The recipe doesn’t say when to add back the bison you remove to cook the veggies. I’m assuming AFTER the vegas are softened but before the recipe is finished. Help me here
So sorry about that, yes that’s correct. Recipe has been revised!!
Hi Liz, I live in Texas and I seriously don’t care what the weather is like out side, but I love soup all year around too!! I made this soup just as you recommended but, I did add and changed just a few things. For one, I added garlic gloves. I just love the taste of garlic in all my cooking…I cooked the veggies in evo because I love that flavor as well, and last I added a can of northern beans instead of the peas. It was just delicious! BTW, they sell the bison ground meat at Cosco for a great price. Thanks again for sharing such a flavorful recipe…also, your baby is adorable!! Sandy P
Oh thank you so much!! SO glad you enjoyed!
Your soup look s great, I would have never thought to use V8 and cabbage.
The v8 is key!!
I made a cabbage bison soup the other day. I used 1/2 cabbage shredded, a small handful of shredded carrots, 4 small celery sticks, 1/2 onion, tablespoon minced garlic, onion powder, garlic salt and garlic powder, italian seasoning, salt, pepper orangic beef stock, and a can of mild ro tel. It was surprisingly good.
Ooooo that sounds so good!!!! I love cabbage
I would love a big batch of this in my freezer!
This is ideal freezer food!
I am with you – I am a year-round soup person! We have been having a heat wave and it broke last week – the first thing I did was make some soup ;)
Oh man I can’t wait to make soup now that I’m back home!!
WOW! Look at those eyes, so blue and beautiful! Aside from the absolutely adorable baby pic, the soup looks delicious too :) I love trying new meats, and since I’ve never cooked with bison I’ll have to give it a try with this yummy sounding soup :)
Aww thank you so much!! You must try bison!!!! You’d love it!
Nice soup recipe. Thank you Liz.
Thank you so much Liz!!
I can’t eat soup in hot weather. Unless it turns cool and feels like a fall day. Haha!! This does look really good.
haha I totally get it!! I’m so weird!!
Eating soup in the summer? Not weird at all! In fact, I’m a bit soup-obsessed and could happily eat it every single day for lunch. Bison has such wonderful flavor and is fantastic in soups…this is calling to me, Liz!
I seriously could too Dara!! Now that I’m back home from traveling I can’t wait to make another batch for lunches. :)