Slow-Cooked Beef Vegetable Soup

The shortest week of the year in terms of daylight. The solstice is Friday. Three-thirty and it is dark, which Vermont accepts without complaint because Vermont has been doing this for ten thousand years and is not going to start arguing with the sun's schedule now. I find the early dark useful: it clarifies that evening has arrived and that evening activities — woodstove, Frost, book, occasionally the radio — are now in order.

Helen finished the Christmas cookies Thursday. They are in tins on the sideboard in the front room, labeled by content in her handwriting, which has gotten no less precise over forty years. The molasses cookies are in the blue tin. The shortbread is in the green tin. The gingerbread is in the smaller blue tin, reserved for the grandchildren's decorating session scheduled for Sunday. I have been told clearly that I am not to eat the gingerbread. This instruction has never successfully prevented me from eating the gingerbread. It is also unclear why it continues to be issued.

I made a pot roast this week — chuck roast, browned hard on all sides in the Dutch oven, then braised in stock and a cup of cider with onions and carrots and two potatoes, covered, at 325 degrees for three hours. My father called this Sunday roast even when he made it on Wednesday, because Sunday was the principle, not the calendar day. The house smelled correct. This is the highest culinary standard I know: the house smelled the way a house should smell in December.

Sarah and Tom and the children will arrive Thursday. David and family are coming Saturday. The farmhouse will be full for the first time since Thanksgiving. I have been laying in extra wood. A farmhouse prepares for winter guests the way a ship prepares for weather: everything secured, everything sufficient, nothing more than necessary.

Friday is the solstice. From Friday on, the days get longer. That is worth noting every year. December does not just close — it turns the corner. The turn is the point. Eight weeks until maple season, more or less. I am already thinking about the trees.

The pot roast I described above—chuck browned hard, braised low and slow with stock and cider, the house filling with that particular December smell—comes from the same tradition as this slow-cooked beef vegetable soup, just carried a step further into the broth. When the family arrives Thursday and again Saturday, a pot this size sits on the stove between meals like a standing invitation: help yourself, there is plenty, this is what the farmhouse is for. My father would have recognized it immediately. He called that recognition “correct.”

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 8 hrs | Total Time: 8 hrs 25 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cups beef broth
1 cup apple cider or water
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
3 medium carrots, sliced 1/2 inch thick
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Instructions

Season and sear the beef. Pat the beef cubes dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown the beef on all sides, about 3–4 minutes per batch. Transfer browned beef to a slow cooker.
Deglaze and add liquid. Pour the cider or water into the hot skillet, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom. Pour the deglazing liquid over the beef in the slow cooker, then add the beef broth and diced tomatoes.
Add the vegetables and aromatics. Nestle the carrots, potatoes, onions, and celery around the beef. Add the garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. Stir gently to combine.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 7–8 hours, or on HIGH for 4–5 hours, until the beef is tender enough to break apart with a spoon and the vegetables are soft.
Finish and serve. Discard the bay leaf. Stir in the thawed peas during the last 15 minutes of cooking. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and serve with crusty bread or biscuits alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Slow-Cooked Beef Vegetable Soup — The House Smelled the Way a House Should in December