Chao Patties

Delicious cheesy meaty soup. I'm not a fan of cooked carrots, but they really make this soup yummy.

 

• 1 pound ground beef or turkey
• 1 medium-sized onion, preferably yellow
• 2 nice squishy Roma tomatoes
• A small handful of cilantro leaves
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot
• 1 tsp dill
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• Squirt of plain old yellow mustard
• 1 good-sized baking potato
• Chicken stock, enough to cover all the above shit
• 1 cup half-and-half or cream
• 8 oz. Velveeta

Cut tomatoes into quarters. Scrape off seeds and goo.

Chop onion in half. Dice half and set aside. Whack other half into quarters. Smash garlic with flat of knife. Throw tomato, half-onion, garlic, and cilantro into blender or food processor. Buzz until more or less liquid. Set aside.

Brown meat in 2-quart saucepan. When meat begins to crumble easily, add other half-onion, carrot, dill, basil, mustard, and parsley. When meat is immolated to your taste, drain off fat and add tomato mixture. Let simmer. Dice the potato, leaving the skin on. Add potato and enough stock to cover. Bring to a low boil, reduce heat, and cover.

Let simmer until potatoes are very very tender. Then pour in the half-and-half or cream. This will make the soup too cool to melt the cheese. Now, therefore, is a good time to cut the cheese up.

By the time you have made a pile of cheese cubes on your cutting board, the soup should be hot enough to melt it. Add the cheese a little at a time, stirring constantly until it's all melted in.

Ladle soup into bowls and serve with hot, crusty bread. You can garnish it with more parsley and dill and a squiggle of mustard on top.

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