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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Hearty Vegetable Bean Soup in the Crock Pot

I came across this recipe for Hearty Vegetable Soup while looking for easy and healthy dinner options last week.  Since I had most of the ingredients on hand, I decided to prepare the soup last week even though I already had the meals for the week planned out.  What can I say?  I'm easily swayed by easy soup recipes!  Especially, crock pot recipes!

As usual, I made a few changes.  I wasn't sure how I'd like allspice in the soup, so I left that out.  An easy decision, since I didn't have any in the spice rack!



Hearty Vegetable Bean Soup in the Crock Pot 

Ingredients:  

  • yellow onion, diced 
  • 2 carrots, sliced into 1" pieces
  • 2 white potatoes, diced
  • 2 celery stalks, diced 
  • 1 tsp. bottled minced garlic 
  • 4 cups chicken broth 
  • 16 oz. bag, frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, green beans, lima beans) 
  • 1 can fire-roasted tomatoes with garlic 
  • 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained 
  • 1 bay leaf 
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 Tbs. Italian Seasoning
Directions: 
  • Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours or until carrots and potatoes are tender.  

Notes:  
  • The original recipe stated the cooking time to be 8 hours on low.  My crock pot usually cooks faster, but this time it took the full 8 hours.  Probably because I added my vegetables while they were still frozen.  Using thawed vegetables or cooking on a higher temperature would probably speed up the cooking time a bit.  
  • This made 6 hearty bowls of soup.  You could probably stretch the recipe further, making it a thinner soup by adding more broth.  Small pasta and/or shredded chicken or even ground beef would be a good addition as well.  

How easy is that?!  I love when it doesn't matter what order you add the ingredients to the crock pot!  I really enjoyed this soup.  It reminded me of a minestrone soup but without the pasta.  I'm sure this recipe will be appearing in more than a few of our menu plans during the fall and winter months!  


I've linked this recipe post to the following blog carnivals and linky parties:





1 comment:

  1. This looks so good! Thanks for sharing! Your newest follower from threekendrickblessings.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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