Left-over Pot-Less Roast. It's Soup Time at the Browns.

Remember that chuck roast from last week? The one with almost no potatoes, hence pot-less roast. Of course, it wasn't cooked in a pot, either. It was prepared, with loving care, in a stainless steel frying pan. A deep one.

Try as we could, the two of us could not eat all that roast and veggies.

Oh, yeah. I roasted a buncha onions, squash, zuchinni, red and green bell peppers, and...anyway, a lot of stuff. We ate it for two meals, and still had quite a bit left over.

Well, being a soup-lover, I decided to slice up the remaining beef, and dump the whole mess into a big pot.

To the left-overs, I added:

• a bag of frozen tomatoes, about a half gallon, from an earlier garden
• a bag of frozen corn, straight from the frozen foods section of the supermarket
• a can of green beans 'cause I had them in the pantry
• three beef ribs that were in the freezer
• a half pound or so of ground beef from the freezer, left over from some other adventure
• another onion chopped up in big chunks
• enough water to cover the whole mess

...and, I let it simmer, uncovered, until it looked about right. A taste for seasoning  showed I needed some pepper. And, a dash or two, maybe 8-10, of fila. It's used a lot in gumbo dishes.

It simmered for maybe an hour. Shut it down, covered it with a lid, and let it cool. During the cool-down process, all the ingredients share their individual flavors, blending into the perfect mixture of vegetable-beef-soup.  Brown style. Ok, so it's pretty much a common recipe.  

You can add any veggies you want. Within reason, of course. Don't like tomatoes? Don't add them. I'm not sure what's wrong with you if you don 't like tomatoes. They're good for your heart. As is the garlic I cooked with the roast.

After the Big Chill, and about a half hour from sitting down at the table, I kicked the heat on, again. This time, I let it boil, checking to make sure there was no chance of sticking to the bottom. That would have been a sure fire way of messing up a good pot o' soup. Once it was hot, I checked to make sure the rib meat was coming off the bone. That's when you know that everything's gonna be all-right.

Dish it up. Slice up some wheat bread. You can use it for dunkin', or you can spread some butter on it. It's not fancy eating, but it's hearty, healthy and tasty. Best way to recycle left-over everything but the kitchen sink, too.