Caramelized Carrot Ribeye Soup

*I never took a picture of this soup and I gave the rest away! Bummer! It looked great though (ha ha)! Picture kale amidst white barley in a reddish broth, yellow corn kernels poking around :).

I'll snap a photo of this soup tomorrow, but before I forget, wanted to get the details down as best I can recall. Making up a soup as I go is a favorite pastime and sometimes it lands a super tasty one worth trying again.

Heat large stock pot while frozen homemade chicken stock thaws a bit (gallon sized freezer bag). Add some oil to the hot-pot and sauté a large garlic clove (smashed and chopped) with 2 large carrots until the carrots are getting dark on one side and searing (caramelizing). Meanwhile, in a very hot cast iron skillet, put your seasoned rib eye (Lawry's rubbed in or whatever you like. I did a few seasonings) in to seer with a large chopped/smashed garlic clove. Add a medium diced onion and about 2 or 3 cups of chopped kale once the steak is about 1/2 cooked. Just tuck the onion around it and cover the whole skillet with the kale. It will get mixed in as you turn the meat--try to get everything nice and juicy and mixed.

Add a large can of tomato puree to the stock pot along with the chicken stock. Heat till nearly boiling. Throw in a good bit of parsley, some pepper, some basil and a little salt, not even 1 T....at most 1 T.

Meanwhile, cube (into dice sized pieces) 2 white potatoes leaving the skin on. Maybe I should say 'dice' but I always think of dicing as smaller than what I did for the soup. Add the potatoes to the stock pot, sprinkle in a decent amount of barley, maybe 1/4 cup.

The ribeye should be long finished cooking, so dice it up pretty small removing all the fat. Put the fat into cheesecloth, tie it tight, and put it in the stock pot. That's right, we need some flavor! Just let this stay with the soup for about 20 minutes. Before you cut up the meat, add the onions, kale and pan drippings to the soup.

OK, so now you have in a large stock pot:

1 medium onion that has been seasoned and softened with a ribeye in cast iron

2 white potatoes with skin on

2 very large garlic cloves, 1 browned in oil and 1 in steak drippings (or 4 or 5 small cloves)

2 carrots, seared until sticky and brown on one side at least (in oil with the one garlic clove)

2 cups or so of chopped kale which has already been cooked down with the steak

large can tomato puree

barley

pepper (white and black), basil, parsley, salt

fat in cheese cloth

Bring this to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, Remove the cheesecloth with the fat inside, you are finished with that. Now add a bag of frozen corn--I think mine was 16 oz. but it really looked nice and I love hitting a sweet corn niblet in soup!

Add in the diced steak and about 1 1/2 cups cooked rice. Simmer with a lid, stirring occasionally, for about 30 mins or so...maybe more, till it comes together and looks fantastic. The smell will change as it's finishing, from separate ingredients to a yummy awesomeness. We all really enjoyed this soup and I hope if you try it, you will, too!