Beef and Wine Soup with Dumplings

"I enjoyed this soup, but my roommate did not. He didn't care for the strong wine flavor that was present. I used a smooth merlot that added depth but the overall recipe was less flavorful than I had h..." See moreoped! I made the following changes / tweaks: added an entire chopped small yellow onion, used 3 cloves of garlic, added a 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms, used approx. 6 oz. of dumpling style egg noodles and increased the tomato juice and red wine by 1 cup each. If I make this in the future (which I probably won't) I will increase only the tomato juice and broth by 1 cup each and decrease the wine by 1 cup. Some additional spices should be added for flavor, but I am not sure which ones. Thyme and parsley?"

"This is one of the tastiest soups I've had in a very long time. The key I think is to get a good red wine. A cabernet or something like that works well, don't be tempted to use a really cheap wine as ..." See moreI just don't think it'll be as good. Also, I took to adding just a dab of sour cream as it works well with the broth. I will be making this soup again for sure, especially as the snow falls."

"How can you say the Prep Time is 5 minutes? I find that deceptive - especially if one is looking for a fast and easy meal to prepare on a worknight. How is that calculated - once everything is broug..." See moreht together, chopped, diced, portioned, etc? I would put the Prep Time at at least 20 to 30 minutes."