Tasty Bison & Vegetable Soup with Homemade Bone Broth

So, fall has been very kind to us in Nebraska so far. It hasn't been until today, that the weather reminded us that winter is just around the corner. The wind has been howling all day and the temperature finally dropped before 40*. 

But luckily I was ahead of the game, and had the perfect meal to warm me up today... Bison & Vegetable Soup made with a Bison Chuck Roast and Bison Bone Broth. (If you don't have the patience or desire to make your own bone broth, you can of course substitute a beef broth instead.)

Although this recipe took a little bit of time (mostly just waiting for the bone broth), it was quite easy to make and a recipe that I'm definitely going to hold on to!

Bison Bone Broth Instructions

Again, if you prefer to skip this step and use beef broth instead, that is totally acceptable. If you prefer to use the homemade bison broth, here are my steps; and here's a link to get the bones you need.

I placed 4 bones in my crockpot (as well as a bone from the bone-in bison steak, I'd just happened to enjoy this night) along with 2 carrots, 2 pieces of celery and half an onion. I sprinkled with salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary and made sure all the bones were covered with water. Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture, I need a slightly bigger crockpot!

I then turned my crockpot onto low and covered it. After 1 day, I removed the vegetables and added water to top off the crockpot again. After two more days (a total of nearly 36 hours), the broth was complete!

From there, I strain out all the fat, and gunk that didn't break down. Then I store it in mason jars. They can last for a couple days in the fridge or longer in the freezer.

  

Bison & Vegetable Soup Instructions

As I don't have much experience making soups, I used this recipe as a guide. 

I began with my Bison Chuck Roast (my favorite cut to use -- by far!) If you don't want the hassle of cutting the meat yourself, my online store actually sells pre-cut stew meat which would work perfectly in this recipe. 

I only used half of this roast for my soup – so I roasted the second half to use this weekend for either sandwiches or fajitas... I haven't quite decided yet!

The first thing to do is to cut the roast into bite sized pieces. You can tell even during this part of the process just how tender this meat really is. I was a little nervous about it getting over-done in the soup, but those fears were completely unfounded! The meat was so incredibly tender!

I like to do all the prep work ahead of time so that the cooking process can go smoothly without any problems. So, at this time I also cut each of the vegetables into bite size pieces: 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, 1 yellow onion and 2 russet potatoes. I set all those aside in my large stock pot with a tablespoon of olive oil.

The first step is to brown the pieces of meat. You don't want to allow them to start cooking too far, so I put a them in a heated cast iron skillet with some olive oil for just about 2 minutes, being sure to let each side become browned. Once they were browned, I set them aside on a plate.

After the meat has been browned, turn on the stock pot with the vegetables and allow the vegetables to sauté for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 4 minutes, we're going to add the meat pieces to the stock pot, along with each of the remaining ingredients: 4 cups of broth, 1 cup water, 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper, to taste.

Once all items have been added to the pot, bring the soup to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, you'll be left with a tasty soup with deliciously tender bison meat – perfect on a cold day!

This will make quite a large batch of soup! To reheat leftovers, put the serving you want in a saucepan and heat over medium low for approximately 10 minutes, or until soup is thoroughly heated.

Bison & Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb. bite sized Bison Stew Meat (can be from chuck roast or steak)
2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 - 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
garlic salt, salt, pepper
olive oil
1 cup water
4 cups bison broth (or beef broth), see instructions above

Directions:

Brown all sides of stew meat in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil. Remove from pan and set aside. Add 1 tbsp. Olive Oil to a stock pot along with onions, carrots, celery and potatoes. Heat to medium and sauté for 3 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients, applying seasonings to taste. Bring soup to a boil, then turn heat to medium low and simmer for 30 more minutes.