#4: Slow-Cooker 15 Bean Soup

"²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"  Matthew 6:25-27

Dear Tiffany,
Yes, I know I'm posting #4 without posting #3.  #3 is the sauce I made to go with Tuesday's spaghetti and meatballs, and I promise I will write it.  Soon.


About a year ago, I was looking for a bean soup recipe online, and I discovered a treasure trove: A blogger who spent a year using her slow-cooker everyday and shared her recipes, successes, failures, silly anecdotes etc with us all.   As you know, I am obsessed with my slow cooker(s) (yes, plural), and I was delighted to find both a kindred spirit and a great source for tons of new ideas or variations on old ones.  In fact, her blog is part of the inspiration for mine.  Have I ever met her/spoken to her/even commented on her blog?  No. I probably should, seeing as how she so greatly impacted my life :P.


As it happens, I didn't end up following the Crockpot lady's recipe exactly, so I'll post my variation here.  She posted two: the version that gave her her inspiration, and the version she actually made.  I ended up taking elements of both to make mine, and have fiddled around with it ever since.  Great for the economical housewife (i.e. YOU), this soup is a ridiculously good "bang for your buck."

The basics:

Prep time: 5-10 minutes, then in the slow cooker all day

Good for leftovers: yes!  If you have too much, freeze some.

servings: ...a lot.  The bag of beans says it serves 11.  With the right sides you can stretch this to 15 or more

cost: about $5 total.  yes. I mean it.
$$ saved: $25- a soup from the Safeway Signature Cafe usually costs between $4 and $5 for about 3 servings per container.

Ingredients:
1 bag of 15-bean (or 16-bean or whatever) soup mix
1 packet onion soup mix (such as lipton, etc)
1 onion
1 can italian style stewed tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons minced garlic
water
salt to taste

"Before" (but sadly, I forgot to take an "after" shot)

If possible, let your beans soak overnight, but if you can't it will be fine.  DO make sure to rinse them well either way.  Dump everything but the salt in a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker- fill the water up to about 2 inches from the top, less if you want a "beany-er" soup and more if you want a more watery soup.  Cook on low all day, and add salt to taste at the very end.  (For some reason the beans don't like to expand when you salt them at the beginning).


Today, I was out of stewed tomatoes (oh no!  As you'll soon discover, I use them in everything!), and I was trying to clean out my fridge, so I tweaked it a bit to adapt the contents of my kitchen :).  I quartered my last two tomatoes to replace the stewed tomatoes, and added a zucchini and a yellow squash (cut into small chunks) as well.  And, I had about half a carton of beef broth that I wanted to use so I used that in place of some of the water.


A few notes on soup in the slow cooker: 
1. Cast off your fear of leaving appliances on, just this once!  Soups, especially those with beans such as this one, chili, or split pea, will taste better the longer you cook them, so this is a good meal to put in the night before for a lunch, or the morning before a long workday.  It's not going to be ruined if you leave it in for 10 or 12 or 15 hours instead of 8.  Really.  I promise.
2. In general, you can do something for 4-5 hours on high if you don't have time to do it on low, but it will taste better if it cooks longer.
3. The world won't end if you have to leave out something like garlic, as long as you have the onion soup mix, water, and beans you'll be fine.
4. Make sure your crockpot is actually...uh...plugged in...before you leave the house/go to sleep/get in the shower.  I can't tell you how many times, today included, that I've forgotten to turn it on.


Variation:
This soup is vegetarian.  You can make it not so by adding a ham hock or just some leftover ham to cook with it, OR by adding really any kind of meat.  If you're using a really fatty meat though, such as ground beef, I suggest browning it before adding to the crock so all that fat doesn't end up in your otherwise healthy soup!


I totally remembered to bring my camera, but forgot to take pictures :(.  Sorry!  (I know that's your favorite part, Tiff :P)