How to make Kreatosoupa – Traditional Greek Beef Soup

The perfect day for a warming soup , MGG (My Greek God), went off first thing with his shopping list, and was back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail, with all the ingredients for  “Kreatopsoupa”, that’s Greek for meat soup.

 We have had an Arctic cold front “Ariadne”, which drifted in at the tail-end of last week, wreaking havoc, especially on the Aegean island of Skopelos, which flew to fame through the film “Mama Mia”; Greece is just not equipped for snow!

 

 

Just as we thought the cold spell was coming to an end, it got its second breath, and, peeking through the curtains last night, I was amazed to see it snowing rather hard, but never expected to see what I woke up to this morning!

A winter wonderland, our garden was white; a rare sight for Loutraki, in fact, the last time this happened here was 2006.

All very beautiful, though extremely cold, with a temperature of -2 degrees C!

 

 

Kreatosoupa – Greek meat soup

 

When my mother made this, years ago, back in Yorkshire, we called it stew, invariably it had yummy suet dumplings floating in it.

 

 

Well, I’ve tried suet dumplings out on my family, definitely a no no, what a strange lot they are.

 All my family though, including sweet Melina, my five year old granddaughter love stew, minus the dumplings, so that’s what will warm us up on this cold and snowy day.

 

Ingredients for 4 – 6 people

 

 

1 kilo beef, cut into bite – sized pieces

 6-7 large carrots, peeled and sliced

 5 – 6 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

 A large bunch of celery

 3 – 4 large onions, peeled and sliced

(100 ml Olive oil, optional)

Salt & pepper to taste

 

Method

 

(Many Greeks, boil the potatoes and carrots whole and the celery, washed but uncut, in the soup,  and remove from soup after cooking, and serve separately on a plate)

This step is optional, add 100 ml olive oil to the pan, heat and add meat and brown, turning frequently, once the meat is browned procceed in the following way:

 Half fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil

Add meat, (I use kitchen scissors to cut into bite – size pieces, much easier than a knife), sliced carrots, sliced onions, cubed potatoes, and celery.

Again, after washing the celery, I finely cut it into very small pieces, using kitchen scissors, straight into the pan.

 Add salt and pepper to taste.

 Give it all a good mix, bring to the boil, lower heat and simmer for a good three hours, giving it the occasional stir.

 

 

Some recipes advice you to skim off the foam that forms at the beginning of boiling, I never do this, I feel as though that would be throwing away some of the flavor and goodness.

As long as you give it a few good stirs, when it starts to appear, it soon disappears to where it came from!

 Once the beef is tender and soft, it’s ready.

 

 

Slice up some fresh crusty bread and enjoy, don’t wait for it to snow before you try it!