Métis hamburger soup on D is for Dinner

Support for indigenous students at Algonquin College often begins with a hot meal at the school's Mamidosewin Centre. 

"The centre is kind of a home away from home for students, and I feel like I'm like an auntie who's cooking in the kitchen," said Elena Abel, the centre's events co-ordinator.

Abel cooks for as many as 70 students at the centre's monthly feasts. The meals always include bannock, a traditional flatbread. For the main course she's cooked everything from simple beef stews to wild game dishes.

"A couple of years ago we ordered a whole moose," says Abel. The huge quantity of meat came as a bit of a shock but yielded many meals for hungry students.

"It was moose everything. Moose spaghetti sauce, moose meat stews, moose tacos. We did everything with it," she says. "It was creative, not necessarily traditional."

Students follow their noses to the feast, but once inside the centre they also get nourishment for the spirit from centre staff and community elders. 

"Maybe they're lonely for their family," says Reta Gordon, a senator of the Métis Nation of Ontario who attended the November feast. "I would step in and be their grandma."

Gordon brought a pot of hamburger soup made from her grandmother's recipe, a dish that was often at the centre of the family gatherings of her own childhood.

Hamburger Soup

(From Metis Cookbook and Guide to Healthy Living; recipe courtesy of the late Earl Scofield, senator of the Métis Nation of Ontario.)

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter.
• 1 lb ground beef.
• 3 small onions, chopped.
• 16 oz can diced tomatoes.
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• 6 cups water.
• 3 large carrots, sliced.
• 3 celery stalks, diced.
• 3 medium potatoes, diced.
• 1/3 cup macaroni.

Directions

• Melt butter in a saucepan, adding ground beef and cooking slightly.
• Add onions, tomatoes, salt, pepper and water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for one hour.
• Add vegetables and simmer for another hour.
• Stir in the macaroni during the last 15 minutes.