Maryland Crab Soup

There were a whole bunch of crabs left over from dinner at my parents the other night, so I brought them home and spent an hour picking crabs and trying not to eat them. I had already decided that I would make soup, so I kept the backfin meat separate because I think it's too good for soup. I've seen plenty of recipes that would disagree with this, so hey, to each his own. I guess it depends on how much cash you want to drop on your crabmeat. Since I was actually picking the crabs and not buying packaged crabmeat, I also kept some of the crab legs since there was really no meat coming out of the cold crabs and I tend to like seeing crab parts in my crab soup. It also gives some extra flavor to the soup from the delicious seasonings.

Maryland Crab Soup
2 tblsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
28 oz can diced tomato
3 cups water
8 oz frozen corn
8 oz frozen okra
8 oz frozen cut green beans
4 medium red potatoes, diced
1 lb crabmeat (plus any crab pieces you might have)
Old Bay seasoning
salt & pepper

Heat olive oil over medium heat in large pot. Add onion and sweat until tender. Add tomatoes and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add water, corn, okra, green beans, potatoes, crabmeat, and crab pieces. Add 2 tblsp Old Bay and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cook for at least 30 minutes. Taste and season to your taste. Be sure to allow the soup to cook for a few minutes and taste again after seasoning.

Note: Although I knew I was going to make this soup, I failed to be sure I had carrots or potatoes before I started. If I had carrots, I would have sliced 2-3 carrots and added them before the onion. I happened to have a few potatoes in the pantry, but it's ended up not being very much compared to the size of the pot of soup I made. If you have large potatoes, 4 might do, but if you really like potato in your crab soup, 4 mediums might not make you happy.