About time for another recipe huh?!
In the colder months I live on soup. A fairly accurate estimate would be 95% of my lunches are soups if it isn’t warm out. I make a full crockpot and divvy it out in smaller lunch size containers, freeze them and then have a vast selection for what I’d like to take to work each day. (Currently my freezer has 8 different soup varieties). The lovely ladies in my office always comment on how delicious they smell, how I’m making them hungry, how I need to cook for the whole office, and often ask for recipes. On this latest soup of mine, I made it one day and loved every bite of the 8-10 servings it made! It was so delicious! When one of my co-workers who shares an interest in health and delicious cooking asked for the recipe – I couldn’t give it to her! The bummer was not that it was a family secret or me wanting to hoard my yummy kitchen creations, but I just hadn’t written it down. I have a tendency to create unforgettable meals in the kitchen that I rave about, and then completely forget how I made it so good! So this week I made another batch of the Veggie Soup I threw together last month and this time wrote down what I did! Lovely co-worker friend, this one’s for you!
Rachel’s Throw-together Crockpot Veggie Soup
Ingredients:
- 2 cups low-sodium vegetable juice, like V8
- 1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes (with basil)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2-3 ribs celery, sliced
- 1 sweet onion, sliced
- 2 cups shredded cabbage (can use a coleslaw mix bag found in the produce section for easy prep)
- 1 10oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 cup of beans (lima beans, canalini, and kidney are my favorite in this)
- 1/2t cumin
- 1/4t cinnamon
- 1t sugar (or one packet Truvia, or 1 T real leaf stevia – adds sweetness)
Directions:
- In a large crockpot, combine all ingredients.
- Cook on high for 4-5hrs or on low for 6-8 until all vegetables are tender.
- Enjoy!
Variations: instead of crushed tomatoes, use diced; instead of basil tomatoes, add 1 T sweet dried basil; instead of adding a sweetener, use stewed tomatoes. This is a great recipe to use up leftover veggies in your house – add some spinach, green beans, peas, zucchini, whatever you have. Play around and see what you come up with!
