Ground Beef Soup with Garlic Bread

Back in April I fixed this soup with Chorizo Sausage.  I am in my mom's kitchen helping out and thought it might be nice to make soup for dinner.  Full of lots of great vegetables and is a hearty soup.  I thought I would try this with ground beef and I thought it came out really nice.

Ground Beef Soup
1 package of ground beef (about 3/4 pound)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 cups of chicken broth
1 - 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1 can each of chickpeas and kidney beans, drained and rinsed, mix together
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
A small amount of crushed red pepper (depending on your taste)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1-1/2 cups pasta (I used chiocciole shaped pasta - looks like a large macaroni)
1 - 6 ounce bag baby spinach
Parmesan Cheese

Add ground beef to a (medium heat) 6 quart dutch oven that has the olive oil added.  Cook, stirring often breaking meat into bite sized chunks (don't make them too small, you want to get those bites of meat as you eat the soup.  Cook until brown.  It there is a lot of fat, spoon some of it out.  Add carrots, onion, and garlic.  Cook until onion is tender, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Add herbs and stir until fragrant.  Add chicken broth, tomatoes (with juice), add about 3/4 of the bean mixture and bring to a boil (you can add more of the beans but you want to make sure that you have enough liquid to cook the pasta in).  Bring soup to a boil, add pasta, cover and cook for 10 minutes until pasta is tender.  Stir in spinach (a little at a time) until wilted.  Add more salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Also, if you want more place some more crushed red pepper at the table.

Garlic Bread
1/2 loaf sourdough boule bread, sliced
2 sticks of butter
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Place butter and garlic into a saucepan.  Let the butter melt and simmer.  Do not let the butter over cook and turn brown.  Place bread slices onto a baking pan and place into an oven that has been turned to broil.  Keep an eye on the bread, you want it to brown but not burn.  Flip bread over and do the same for the other side.  Take a spoon and spoon butter mixture over bread slices and place the pan back into the oven to brown.  Be careful, it can over brown very quickly.

I also served this meal with a side salad, consisting of lettuce and tomato.