Reviewed: Jan. 2, 2012

Made about 14 of these for Christmas gifts this year. Gave them to family and co-workers. We saved pasta sauce and saurkraut jars that worked well for storage containers. The hardest part was finding large containers where they sold beef bouillon and found this at Sam's Club.

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Reviewer:

COLE01

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Alexandria, Kentucky, USA

Living In: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Reviewed: Dec. 25, 2011

Great "Italian" tasting soup plus it makes a great gift idea. Gave these to both people who liked to cook and those who did not. It is so easy, anyone can make it. It made a lot when we tried it so it lasted for a few days at our house, but it seemed to taste better each day. I browned stew meat (cut into small cubes), tossed in flour and garlic powder and browned in a little olive oil. I used a smaller 15 oz can of diced tomatos and 2 cans of tomato sauce instead of paste. We garnished the soup with parmesan cheese on top and it was really good. I made these up as gifts, putting them in wide mouth quart size mason jars with Christmas fabric on top. I gave them in a holiday basket with cotton "snow" lining the basket. I added the tomato cans, a wooden spoon and a box of corn muffin mix along with the recipe card to make it a complete gift. These were a hit! Thanks for the recipe!

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Reviewer:

Boatdrinks

Cooking Level: Expert

Reviewed: Dec. 19, 2011

I tested out the recipe before assembling the ingredients for gift-giving. Instead of tomato paste, I used tomato sauce & added 2 extra cups of water because there was WAY too much bouillon and it made the soup salty. My split peas didnt get soft, even after an hour of cooking...nor were they soft the next day as left-overs. Not sure how long they'd need to be cooked in order for them to not be crunchy. Overall, the soup was good, more of a stew, really, because it was super thick (even after the addition of extra water). I enjoyed the variety of textures with the different grains. It made A LOT of soup, though, so I halved the recipe (and changed the instructions to use sauce instead of paste, add extra water & cook longer) & layered ingredients in small clear cellophane bags, tied with pretty ribbon. I made 25 gift bags & am hoping the recipients enjoy this unique "st-oup."

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Reviewer:

ThisMamaCanCook

Cooking Level: Expert

Reviewed: Dec. 3, 2011

I made these yesterday for Christmas gifts and they look great! I got all my ingredients at Wal-Mart (super cheap) and 1 quart mason jars at Michael's. I found the ingredients fit just fine in a 1 quart jar when I added 3/4 cup of the pasta instead of 1/2 cup. Made some cute labels in Microsoft Publisher and plan on wrapping these in an apron and tying with ribbon! Great gift. I also made a pot of this soup while assembling the gifts with ground turkey - and it was fantastic. Took the suggestion of using 14oz diced tomatoes and fresh garlic. YUM!

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Reviewer:

edavoll

Reviewed: Dec. 2, 2011

This makes great soup. I use italian sausage as my meat and add diced carrots about 5 minutes after the pasta. I do not use the tomato paste.

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3 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

littlejo51

Reviewed: Nov. 5, 2011

I haven't made this yet so I didn't want to rate it (but can't post without giving a rating so I'll go with 5 stars to avoid penalizing the recipe unfairly) I do want to use it for Christmas gifts. I am concerned that some folks say the peas and lentils aren't done enough. I wonder if the instructions ought to say to add the jar ingredients to the cooked beef with WATER initially but not with the tomato products? When cooking any legume, acidic ingredients like tomatoes will prevent them from getting tender so those ingredients should be added later. My lentils--cooked as lentils--usually cook in 25 minutes (package says 15-20) so I wonder if early addition of the tomatoes have prevented them getting done in 45 minutes in this recipe?

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Reviewer:

recipe collector

Reviewed: Jul. 3, 2011

Great soup! Before I gave this out as Christmas gifts, I made some for us first. It's a favourite! Makes a hearty meal in the winter months when served with a nice multigrain bread. Good for large groups since it makes a very large pot. Freezes well too.

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4 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

lake

Reviewed: Jan. 29, 2011

We received this as a gift and it was really good... best of all, the Kids loved it!! We added mushrooms to it and instead of the pasta, we added cheese filled tortellini which made it a little bit more of a "hearty" meal

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10 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

leslib

Reviewed: Jan. 18, 2011

Every person I made this for at Christmas took the time to tell me how great is was later! I took the suggestions of others and used tomato sauce instead of paste. Delicious!

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Reviewer:

dcshoffman

Supporting Member (Click to learn more about Supporting Membership)

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Union, Oregon, USA

Living In: Vancouver, Washington, USA

Reviewed: Jan. 15, 2011

This was really good. I made it for gifts and have had compliments from the receivers. I did have trouble finding regular barley so I used instant and it turned out fine. Will be making this one again.

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10 users found this review helpful