Ground Beef Minestrone with Smen

This week, my brother and I took the shingles off of the garage roof and we are ready to add the new ones.  Single handedly I loaded up all of the shingles and put them in the dumpster. Yes, I am woman!  Afterwards, I felt muscles that I didn't know that I had. I took a lot of aspirin. Today, I took it easy (went to work at my real job) and cooked a well deserved pot of minestrone.   

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef, chicken, turkey or lamb

1 medium onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

3-4 tbs smen

6 cups of water

2 Knorr bouillon cubes

1 stalk of celery, cut into small pieces

½ cup of uncooked elbow macaroni or broken spaghetti

1 small zucchini, sliced

1 cup of shredded cabbage

Salt/pepper to taste

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 - 28 ounce can of chopped tomatoes, undrained

1 – 8 ounce can of kidney beans, undrained

1 – 8 ounce can of whole kernel corn, undrained or  8 oz’s of frozen corn

Parmesan cheese

In a soup pot, cook the ground meat, onion and garlic.  Cook over medium to high heat until the meat is brown and the onions are translucent.  Stir in the remaining ingredients except the macaroni, spaghetti, and cheese, and cook for about 30-40 minutes or until the soup is somewhat thick.  The longer that this cooks the better it will taste.  I added Moroccan smen for that oregano flavor which it has.  If you don’t have it that is fine, you can add butter or leave it out altogether. Next, add the spaghetti and cook until  tender.  Serve with grated parmesan cheese and crispy bread.  Enjoy!

Cooks Note:  In the beginning I added 4 cups of water and saw that the soup would be too thick.  Add more water if needed and adjust the spices.