Venison Soup With Roasted Vegetables

My husband is an avid deer hunter and between him providing the deer meat, and my son, and son-in-love, we are blessed with an abundance of venison which I am so happy to have. Venison is a great source of lean red meat. In fact, it is so lean I have to cook it in olive oil, vegetable oil, and/or butter to bring out the rich flavor of the meat. What makes this venison soup so good is that it is cook in a water bath first and that water is drained off, and then I cook the venison a second time in a homemade beef broth and that is when I add the vegetables.

Making homemade beef broth calls for roasting the beef with the vegetables and then putting them in a stock pot and boiling them down and then draining the beef and vegetables to make a delicious beef broth. Instead of putting the vegetables in with the beef and boiling them down too, I decided to add them to the venison instead. It was like killing two birds with one stone. I got the flavor of the beef broth in the venison soup and the vegetables themselves also. You can by all means use canned beef broth, it works well. If you do use the canned beef broth, and you still want roasted vegetables in you soup, all you have to do is just roast your vegetables by themselves and then add them to the soup. Another tip also is that, I save and freeze my broth and pieces of roast leftover from when I cook my Pot Roasts. You know the part that is just broth and pieces of roast that is left in the bottom of the pan after all the potatoes and carrots are gone. I know what your thinking, we don't usually have any left in the bottom of the pan. Well sometimes that is the case at my table too.

Venison Soup With Roasted Vegetables

2 1/2 lbs of Venison cut in 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons coarse black pepper
8-10 cups water, divided
2 cups of homemade beef broth
(or 2 cups canned beef broth)
1 15.5 oz canned tomatoes, diced
2 onion, 1-inch wedges, roasted
6 medium carrots, sliced 1-inch, roasted
3 celery stalks, sliced 1-inch, roasted
1 1/2 cups whole kernel corn
1/2 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1-2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon garlic minced
1 tablespoon beef base
4-6 potatoes peeled, 1/2-inch cube
Kosher salt to taste
course black pepper to taste

In a large stock pot on high heat, add the venison, salt and pepper, and 4-6 cups of water or enough water to cover 2-inches above the venison. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook for 1 hour. Drain venison from water and return to the stock pot. Add 4-6 cups of water and the next eleven ingredients. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook for 1 hour and then add the potatoes. Cook until potatoes are fork tender and add salt and pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves and serve soup hot.