I had the bright idea of putting a slow cooker on the wishlist for Christmas, and indeed one appeared under the tree, courtesy of the in-laws. Having tried The Pioneer Woman’s Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup as the first dish and been delighted with the convenience of spending ten minutes on prep in the morning only to come home to a kitchen smelling deliciously of soup after work, I was hooked. There was only one problem with the recipe as we saw it: The chicken. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a vegetarian and I love chicken in the right circumstances, but I can control my enthusiasm for “boiled meat” and so can the husband, and all in all it felt a bit superflous. So. I googled “vegetarian slow cooker bean soup”, glanced at a few recipes and decided to just wing it.
Obviously I winged it on the basis of a somewhat vague recollection of the Pioneer Woman recipe, credit where credit is due, but here’s what went in this morning:
2 very small onions, chopped
1 whole Chineese garlic, chopped
4 carrots, washed but unpealed, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 pack of chopped tomatoes, happening to have basil (this was what we had in the pantry)
1 can of tomatoes with onion and garlic
1 pack of mixed beans (according to the pack, I’d call it mixed legumes, as it contains chickpeas)
1 pack of black beans
the water I used to rinse out the previous four containers (a little over half a litre, at a guess)
1 cube chicken stock (if you’re actually a vegetarian, obviously use vegetable stock instead)
about 1 teaspoon cumin
perhaps half a teaspoon chili powder
a little salt
a little black pepper
And I popped it on Low and left for work. When I came home, some 9-10 hours later, it was bubbling merrily and smelling quite delicious. I ran an immersion blender to smooth it out a bit and then greedily ate three bowlfuls with a little grated cheese and some nachips to garnish.
This made 6 x 1 cup/2.5 dl platefuls, and since I’m half-heartedly watching what I eat at the moment and I’m planning to eat this again (over and over) I roughly calculated the calorie content and came to 1200ish for the whole, that is 200 kcal per 2.5 dl plateful.
