Hunting for good eats: Deer hamburger soup

We have been discussing cooking wild game recipes at home, so here is a recipe for all hunters. One most or all of the family members should enjoy.

Hamburger soup: This soup was made recently at my house, last weekend in fact. Take as much ground deer meat as desired. Three packages, representing around three pounds, were browned and added to a large, 5-quart slow cooker at my house.

A large container of low-sodium chicken broth was added. If beef broth was in my pantry, it would have been used, but chicken broth works just fine.

Next a trip to the freezer was warranted. This is a reason to use vegetables stored inside. Now is the time to mention preserving several types of vegetables.

When a group of onions becomes available, such as a 5-pound sack on sale, they are processed for freezing. They are peeled and diced. There are several different tools available to simply reduce a quarter of an onion in to a diced onion with the pull or push of a lever or handle.

Once the onions are diced, they will be placed in appropriate packaging for freezing, such as using a FoodSaver machine. The FoodSaver machine will suck the air out of the bag, leaving the diced onions ready for future use.

A resealable bag also works for this function, but it is difficult to get all of the air out of the bag.

Also, in the freezer are cooked mushrooms, frozen peas, corn and other vegetables. The mushrooms and corn deserve extra examination.

When we have extra ears of corn, during corn season, the ears are cooked and the kernels cut off the cobs. These are placed in resealable bags and placed in the freezer.

The same goes for mushrooms. A sale on mushrooms will have me slicing, cooking and freezing them.

My Deer Hamburger Soup recipe has the browned burger in a slow cooker along with chicken broth. Cooked and frozen mushrooms were thawed, chopped to make them smaller and added to the cooker.

Frozen peas also, along with corn kernels are added to the cooker. Of course, canned beans of one type or another could have been added.

The idea is, as can be expected, any type or combination of vegetables can be added to this soup. The soup made last weekend will provide me with at least 18 meals.

It ended up with little liquid left in the cooker when finished. A little water will be added to each batch as it is heated in the microwave.