Simple Slow Cooker Soups
By Kathy Hester
Soup is a great way to get in some extra veggies and fill you up so you won’t overeat at dinner. Like salad, it’s a great way to add some nutrient dense food to your day. If you keep track of what you eat, you can actually see how much difference it makes. I use sparkpeople.com to track all of my food. You can add whatever vitamin you want to track and it will let you know how close you came for the day. My blood pressure is a little high so I’m trying to get enough potassium. It’s amazing when you find the foods that actually help you reach your goal.
You probably think you don’t have time to make a soup from scratch, but the secret to easy homemade soups is your slow cooker. I keep a few bags of frozen veggies just to make last minute soups, but of course fresh is always great. Fresh vegetables are usually considered the best, but frozen have more nutrients than fresh vegetables that are, well, not so fresh anymore. So remember, there is no shame in using frozen vegetables.
You can cut up some onion, minced garlic, and prepare the veggies you want to use the night before, or just do it when you get up in the morning. You can use filtered water or a rich stock as your soup base. If you use stock, make sure you taste the soup before adding any addition of salt to the pot. Throw everything into the slow cooker before you leave for work. Cook it all day and re-season before you serve it. Slow cooking often dulls the flavors of herbs, so either add fresh ones at the end or extra dried ones.
I like to mix and match my dinnerware to show off my soup creations. Sengware is perfect for that since it comes in so many cool colors. Try serving some spicy sweet potato black bean chili served in Sengware Pomello. The strong yellow really makes the chili pop.
You just need to mix and match your veggies, aromatics, stock and herbs to create a new soup every night. My favorite soup style is faux cream of ‘your ingredient here’. Throw a potato or white beans into the mix when you add in your veggies. Once you get home, puree the whole lot together and it will be silky. Everyone will think it has cream in it!
