one-pot ground beef and vegetable soup with a pumpkin-and-beet base in place of tomato, finished with cassava pasta

Hamburger soup usually leans on a can of crushed tomatoes for its red, hearty base, and tomato leaves the pantry early on AIP. That absence is a real one; plenty of people miss it specifically, not just nightshades as a category. This version builds its red, hearty base from pumpkin puree and a little grated beet instead, and it tastes close enough to what it's standing in for that you stop noticing the swap by the second bowl.

Iron sits at the center of what the beef offers here, the mineral the body needs to keep oxygen moving through it, and a hard sear on the meat before anything else goes into the pot is where a lot of this soup's flavor comes from. Nothing about the swap costs the dish anything it needs.

The beef and the broth both come from an animal that fed you real nourishment, and taking that first searing step slowly, instead of rushing to add the vegetables, is a small way of not passing over that. Ladle it out over the cassava pasta, scatter something green on top, and let a bowl of soup be enough of a dinner tonight.

Ingredients

• 1 lb grass-fed ground beef
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup sliced carrot
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 tsp sea salt, or to taste
• 1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree
• 1/4 grated beet
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 4 cups bone broth (beef preferred)
• 1 cup uncooked cassava fusilli, or other AIP-friendly pasta

Two notes on swaps. First, the red, hearty base here is pumpkin puree plus grated beet, which is a nomato-style approach: there is no tomato or any other nightshade in this soup, even though it reads like a tomato-based one. Second, the source offers red wine vinegar, and this version uses apple cider vinegar so the dish stays free of alcohol-derived vinegar for the elimination phase. The cassava fusilli is a permitted AIP pasta. Nothing else needed changing.

Method

Warm a large pot over medium heat and add the ground beef. Break it up and cook until it is browned through, then add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook, stirring now and then, until the vegetables begin to soften.

Stir in the sea salt, pumpkin puree, grated beet, apple cider vinegar, and dried basil so everything is coated and the base turns rich and red. Pour in the bone broth, bring it up to a simmer, then lower the heat and let it cook gently until the vegetables are tender and the flavors come together.

Stir in the uncooked cassava fusilli and continue simmering until the pasta is cooked to your liking, following the package timing as a guide. Taste and adjust the salt and vinegar. Serve warm.

Instant Pot variation

Set the Instant Pot to Saute and brown the ground beef right in the pot, then add the onion, carrot, and celery and soften them. Stir in the salt, pumpkin puree, grated beet, apple cider vinegar, and dried basil, then pour in the bone broth. Seal and pressure-cook on high until the vegetables are tender, then release the pressure. Switch back to Saute, stir in the cassava fusilli, and cook until the pasta is done, since delicate AIP pasta is better added after pressure cooking than before. The exact pressure time is untested for this dish and should be confirmed in your kitchen.

*Adapted from autoimmunewellness.com*