Nanners’ Hamburger Soup

How could Nanners Beef Burgers and Beyond of South Elgin, IL, have closed their doors??? No, no, a thousand times no! What Nanners could do with ground beef was the culinary equivalent of what Mozart could do with music. I’m so sorry this great little restaurant has closed! Even as I speak, four friends are getting cricks in their necks as they roam around Chicago staring up at the skyscrapers. 

If Dal, Iryn, Shelley, and Joe drive the 45 miles from Chicago to South Elgin in search of a really great Hamburger Soup ... well, they may just be out of luck. So I’ll do the next-best thing and give you Nanners’ Hamburger Soup recipe. I’ve modified the quantities to suit a family of four, reduced the amount of salt, and substituted vegetable stock for the water in the original recipe. This excellent soup is packed with nutrition. It’s a meal in a bowl!

Nanners’ Hamburger Soup:

½ lb. (250 g) lean ground beef
1 tbsp. brown sugar
¼ c. teriyaki sauce
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ c. pot barley
8 c. vegetable stock or water
½ c. each chopped onion, carrot, potato, celery, turnip, and fresh parsley

Brown beef with brown sugar in large soup pot. Do not drain fat. Add teriyaki sauce, salt, pepper, barley, and stock. Simmer, covered, 1 hr., placing a toothpick between lid and pot to vent steam. Add prepared vegetables, cooking at a low boil until vegetables and barley are tender, about 20 min. Serves 4-to-6.

Scramble-fry lean ground beef with brown sugar.
Add teriyaki sauce, seasoning, pot barley, and stock

While broth simmers, assemble and prepare vegetables

Chop-chop-chop!

Sharpen your knife before cutting parsley

CHOP-CHOP-CHOP-CHOP-CHOP! (Whew!) And CHOP!

Add prepared vegetables to simmering broth; raise heat

Ladle hot soup into bowls