Slow Cooker Recipes

Soup Slow Cooker Recipes: “Fast” Food That Is Cheap, Easy to Make, Delicious, and Oh So Good for You

What’s not to love about soup? It’s winter, the perfect time to cozy up with a steaming bowl of your favorite kind. But lest you think you have to settle for what passes for soup in a can for convenience purposes, think again. Soup slow cooker recipes are the perfect way to have delicious, homemade soup, for not much more effort than it takes to open a can. (It tastes better, is cheaper, and is better for you than canned soup as long as you use healthful ingredients, too.)

Benefits of soup slow cooker recipes

Healthy, good for you

• Accommodate any diet

Soup slow cooker recipes start with you, and the possibilities are almost endless. With slow cooker recipes for soup, you don’t have to settle for bland broth or “low sodium” varieties that don’t taste like much. No matter what your particular dietary restrictions (if any), you can find or create slow cooker recipes for soup that taste delicious and are no chore to eat.

Every diet and food preference, from specialized ones like vegetarian or vegan, can be accommodated with slow cooker recipes for soup. And again, if you’ve got dietary requirements like a need for low sodium, you don’t have to pay top dollar for “special” food that probably leaves a lot to be desired in the taste department. You can just tweak a favorite recipe by lowering the salt content (increase the vegetable content and use flavorful and good for you additions like fresh chopped mushrooms, spices, and minced garlic to make up for the salt decrease and improve taste so that you won’t even miss it).

Are you a vegetarian? No problem. Slow cooker recipes for soup can be modified for the vegetarian palate in most cases simply by removing the meat and adding beans or tofu.

• Increase your veggie intake with soup slow cooker recipes

You choose the ingredients, so you can put in the good stuff, and leave out anything bad for you, things that you won’t even miss. Need to increase your veggie intake, even though you really don’t like to eat them? No problem; pack soup slow cooker recipes with vegetables of your choosing, and you won’t even taste them. Chop choices like potatoes, carrots, onions and celery up and toss them for extra texture, vitamins, fiber and flavor; add mushrooms for some savory goodness. If you really can’t stand vegetables, that’s no problem, either. Simply puree those you would like to include; you can usually hide their flavors very easily with other ingredients’ flavors, like that provided by meat or tomatoes.

• Leave out the bad stuff

Because you start slow cooker soup recipes from scratch, you can literally put anything in them that you want to. Even better, you can leave out ingredients that have no nutritional value and that can pack on the calories — things like sugar or starch thickeners, as some commercial soups can.

• Boost your fiber intake

The American diet is woefully short on fiber; experts state that we need at least 25 grams a day, but most Americans get less than half of that. With soup slow cooker recipes, it is both easy and delicious to boost your fiber intake. Toss in half a cup of cooked Great Northern beans for every quart of soup you make, for an extra two grams of fiber per 8 ounce soup serving. White beans like the Great Northern beans are bland enough that even if you don’t like beans, you can puree them and put them in the soup for thickening purposes without altering the soup’s taste. (As an added bonus, they also give you 7 g of protein per half cup of beans, and about 12 g of complex, slow burning carbohydrate, to keep you feeling full longer.)

• Accomplish easy weight loss if you need to with soup slow cooker recipes

Do you have a few pounds to lose after the holiday season? Not to worry; these delicious, healthy recipes can give you a perfect way to cut calories, fill up on fiber and good for you vegetables and beans, and lose that weight almost without even trying. Because soup slow cooker recipes are about 50% liquid (depending on the recipe), and because you can include plenty of vegetables and other ingredients like beans in your recipes, you can have a hearty bowl of soup for very few calories but feel like you’ve had much more than that. In addition, the liquid, fiber, slow burning complex carbohydrates, and protein in the soup are satisfying and keep you full longer, despite the modest calorie count. Watch those pounds drop off!

• Accommodate your type two diabetes, and help manage it

It’s no secret that type two diabetes is a major health problem in America these days. One of the things health care professionals recommend to those who suffer from type two diabetes is to cut out refined sugars, boost fiber intake, cut down on animal protein, and boost vegetable-based proteins, fruits and vegetables. Slow cooker recipes for soup can be perfect weapons in your dietary arsenal when you’re trying to manage your type two diabetes. Because you can control the ingredients exquisitely, you can follow your doctor’s orders perfectly, as well. Pack your soup recipes with low carb vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and vegetable-based proteins like those provided by beans, and you’ll help keep your blood sugar steady, to avoid those dreaded blood sugar spikes and crashes. (If you need to lose weight to help control your type two diabetes, as stated above, soup slow cooker recipes give you a great way to lose weight almost effortlessly, too.)

• Get plenty of trace vitamins and minerals

One of the things Americans don’t get enough of in their diets are trace vitamins and minerals. Because we eat so much processed food, we’d miss out on a lot of those trace elements our ancestors got plenty of. With soup slow cooker recipes, not only do you get those trace vitamins and minerals that are often lost in more processed food, but you can often access those trace minerals and vitamins more easily than you might in other foods. And because even healthy cooking often removes trace vitamins and minerals when you dump cooking water, soup slow cooker recipes have an advantage there, too. Those trace minerals and vitamins stay in the soup’s water, allowing you to fully assimilate and absorb them.

• Pare down your animal protein intake effortlessly with soup slow cooker recipes

Most healthcare professionals advise Americans to substitute some of their animal protein intake with vegetable protein intake. Although animal protein is certainly good for you in moderation, in most cases, we get too much of it. You can create a hearty, soup slow cooker recipe with a modest amount of meat for flavor, and then fill out protein and nutritional requirements with extra beans, complex carbohydrates like potatoes, whole wheat pasta, brown rice or quinoa, and vegetable for a hearty, fully flavored soup that doesn’t skimp on meaty goodness.

Inexpensive, so that you can stretch your food dollar

The great thing about slow cooker recipes for soup is that you can make them on any budget, literally. Money is tight for a lot of people right now, and slow cooker recipes for soup are a great way for you to feed yourself and your family for very little money. Shop store sales and stock up on inexpensive but good for you vegetables, complex carbohydrates, beans and cheap cuts of meat. Keep these ingredients in your pantry or freezer, and pull them out in a pinch when you need to throw a quick, cheap, nutritious meal together. Even the toughest cuts of meat cook up nice and tender when you dice them up and throw them in with some favorite veggies and beans to fill out protein and fiber requirements, and some potatoes with enough water to cover; slow cook for hours and add water occasionally for a rich stew with a delicious gravy-like broth.

Endlessly customizable

There are no limitations when you make soup slow cooker recipes. No matter what the ingredients are that you’re working with, you can generally find a recipe that will accommodate you. If you can’t find one, make it up! Slow cookers are notoriously forgiving, such that you can combine almost any ingredient with others to make a great tasting soup. This ability to endlessly customize recipes simply allows you to work with what you’ve got; if you don’t have the money to go grocery shopping because things are tight until your next paycheck, not a problem. Simply check out what you’ve already got in your pantry and freezer, and you’ll likely find ingredients to make a great pot of soup for dinner. In addition, because slow cooker recipes are so customizable, if you don’t like one ingredient, you can swap it out for something similar and still have a great tasting recipe.

• Search the Internet for soup slow cooker recipes

Have a bunch of disparate ingredients on hand and not sure what to do with them? Search the Internet for slow cooker recipes for soup and look for recipe sites that let you punch in your ingredients on hand; they’ll come up with recipes that you can make with those ingredients. You can also research and update old favorites you’d like to try, like your grandmother’s chicken soup recipe.

Easy, mindless cooking

Yes, it’s winter, which means cooking over a hot stove is not quite so much of a chore. However, why spend all of your time in the kitchen when you don’t have to? Slow cooker recipes for soup let you prepare meals ahead of time, so that all you have to do is to assemble ingredients and prepare them for soup, toss everything in a pot, set it to simmer, and you’ve got dinner ready and waiting for you several hours later. There’s no muss, no fuss, and no real effort put forth. Truly, putting together soup slow cooker recipe is almost as easy as opening a can.

• Do you think you’re all thumbs when it comes to cooking?

If you think you’re all thumbs in the kitchen, you’re not with these recipes. As stated previously, they are notoriously forgiving, so that you can put together just about any ingredients that will taste good. With soup slow cooker recipes, they’re full of liquid, which means burning is much less likely to happen; you don’t have the same time constraints or need for careful watching that you do with other kinds of cooking. Try it; you may just find that you are a whiz at this; most people can do this kind of cooking even if they’re not good at other types.

• No time to spend in the kitchen? No problem, with soup slow cooker recipes

Our days are busier than ever, which means that few of us have lots of time to spend in the kitchen, the way our mothers and grandmothers might have. It can make takeout, delivery or the drive through look very, very attractive — but making that a regular habit is expensive, and it’s not particularly good for you, either. Our expanding waistlines are certainly proof of that.

Fortunately, soup slow cooker recipes give you the ability to do some simple preparations in the morning before work, toss together everything in one pot, and set it to cook, slowly, while you’re at work. It’s no muss, no fuss cooking with no real work required, unlike other types of cooking. You come home to a hot meal that’s also good for you and costs pennies on the dollar to prepare as compared to take out.

• Stock your pantry and freezer with sale items, for a quick, delicious, healthy and easy meal whenever you want one: ingredients to keep on hand

One of the great things about soup slow cooker recipes is that you really don’t have to plan ahead for them. Instead, you can customize them to your own needs. That lets you use just about anything you have on hand for a good, quick meal. It does require just a little bit of preparation, in that you’ll want a well-stocked fridge, pantry and freezer with necessary items. That’s not hard to do, though.

The list of items below, you’ll notice, is comprised entirely of dried beans that will keep almost indefinitely, canned or frozen vegetables, frozen meat, and complex carbohydrates that will keep for several months, and fresh but hardy vegetables that will keep for several months in the refrigerator.

Examples of items to keep on hand for soup slow cooker recipes

Frozen meat: tough beef cuts good for soup, inexpensive chicken legs, hambone

Dried beans: dried beans will stretch your food dollar considerably, and you can usually include bland beans like the Great Northern described above in small amounts without altering taste at all even if you don’t like beans in general. This will boost fiber and protein content, and will let you stretch your food dollar.

Frozen vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, and vegetable mixes are all inexpensive and go on sale quite frequently. Choose frozen vegetables in favor of canned vegetables, to lower salt content and increase nutritional value.

Canned items: diced or stewed tomatoes, tomato paste and tomato sauce and cheaper and easier to keep around than fresh tomatoes are, but will let you give a rich tomato base to any soup recipe. Canned tomatoes are high in lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. Experts say that canned tomato products are even higher in absorbable lycopene than fresh tomatoes are. Choose low salt canned tomato products with no sugar added whenever possible.

Complex carbohydrates: brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta and fresh baking potatoes (not powdered instant) are all easy, fiberful, vitamin rich ways to fill out a soup slow cooker recipe. The brown rice, quinoa, and whole wheat pasta can be placed uncooked and tightly wrapped in a freezer, for extended freshness.

Hardy “extended keep” fresh vegetables: You can stock up about a month at a time on fresh vegetables like celery, carrots, fresh garlic cloves and onions for quick soup inclusions. Others, like fresh mushrooms, can only be bought about a week ahead of time, but will add an extra richness to flavors.

Other tips

To include or substitute beans for meat in recipes

If you’re a vegetarian (or you’d like to try to be one at least part time), it’s easy to take any soup slow cooker recipe and modify it to your needs. Just replace light colored meats like chicken and pork with white colored beans like great northern or navy beans, and replace dark meats like beef with darker, heartier flavored beans like pinto beans or lentils. For every pound of meat, substitute one cup of beans (see pre-boil instructions below).

Pre-boiling beans

Although lentils don’t have to be precooked or pre-boiled before adding them to the pot, you will need to pre-boil other types: just add beans to a large saucepan, add enough water to cover by 2 inches, bring to a boil, and then cover and set off heat for an hour. After an hour, drain and rinse the beans to get rid of the bean sugar that makes beans so famously indigestible.)

It’s really a guessing game

Remember, soup slow cooker recipes are really guidelines at best. Because these soup recipes are mostly water, you can add or subtract water to make soup thicker or thinner. Start with the amount given in any recipe, and then add or subtract as you wish to find a good balance for you. In addition, ingredients and spices can pretty much be swapped out at will, with the exception of certain very strong and distinct spices like tarragon. Use your best judgment, and remember — even a “failure” with a soup slow cooker recipe can often become a new favorite, with unintended results evolving into something new, different and delicious nonetheless.

Adding starches to soup slow cooker recipes

While starches like beans should be added at the very beginning of cooking so that they cook all the way through and are tender when cooking is complete, other starches have very specific add times. Potatoes, for example, can be diced and added at the very beginning of cooking if you want them tender and falling apart in the soup, or about an hour before completion if you want them firm but just done. Regular brown rice should be added 30 minutes before the end of cooking, and pasta should be added only within the last 10 minutes of cooking, so that it doesn’t get mushy and stays al dente.

Soup slow cooker recipe to try

Lentil soup

This is the easiest of soup slow cooker recipes; it can be put together in just a few minutes in the morning; set it to cook on low, and come home to a rich, gravy-like broth with this savory, hearty stew. The following recipe makes 6 quarts:

2 pounds lentils, rinsed
4 baking potatoes, scrubbed and diced
2 carrots, scrubbed and chopped
2 stalks of celery, washed and chopped
Two medium or one large onion(s), peeled and diced
Two cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
Optional: 6 ounces of fresh mushrooms, chopped

Optional: hambone

To taste: salt and pepper, after cooking

Rinse and chop, mince or dice all vegetables, including potatoes; set aside. Rinse lentils and place in 6 quart crock pot; add other ingredients, including mushrooms and/or hambone, if using. Add water to 2 inches below the brim and cover, set on low. Simmer 5 to 6 hours, stirring occasionally. Lentils will fall apart and make a rich gravy. Remove hambone and add salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Soup slow cooker recipes let you be creative, save time – and money!