10 things I learnt about making healthy slow cooker soup recipes:
- Ground meat has to be browned for most flavour and proper texture (otherwise it will be boiled blob of meat), however pieces of meat are don’t.
- Clear chicken broth can be made in a slow cooker – on a stovetop you have to keep the lid a bit open, so I wasn’t sure.
- If you add pasta at the very end, it takes 10 minutes to cook on High. Chop herbs and prepare garnishes in the meanwhile.
- Best starchy, bulky and full of healthy complex carbohydrates ingredients for slow cooker soups are: lentils, brown (and wild) rice, beans, peas, quinoa, potatoes, butternut squash, and pumpkin.
- Best flavour enhancers are mushrooms, leeks, miso paste (at the end), soy sauce, dollop of butter, broth, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and fresh herbs (at the end). Greek yogurt and crushed tortilla chips are on the list too.
- Giving a few pulses with an immersion blender at the end, makes healthy slow cooker soup creamy without cream or lots of cheese.
- Add greens like spinach, kale and swiss chard directly to a slow cooker after heat has been turned off, to boost nutritional content. So many vitamins and so much fiber!
- With any slow cooker soup, you can place all ingredients inside the crock pot, refrigerate overnight and turn on in the morning.
- Slow cooker soups are GREAT for cleaning out the fridge – I have made many soups using whatever ingredients that had to be used without any recipe.
- Soups are healthy and cheap. They refrigerate for days and can be frozen.
Also, check out 15 slow cooker vegetable soup recipes – healthy from around the web.
Grandma’s Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
Healthy Chicken Wild Rice Soup
Slow Cooker Chicken Lentil Soup
Slow Cooker Pasta e Fagioli Soup with Kale
Hearty Bean and Mushroom Soup
Turkey Taco Soup
Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup with Chicken and Quinoa
Slow Cooker Vegetarian Lentil Soup
Crock Pot Chicken, Rice and Mushroom Soup
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