Potato Veggie Soup Recipe

Since we were expecting a blizzard this weekend, I decided to put my Crock Pot to use and make some homemade soup to keep us warm.  :)  I searched the world wide web and ended up combining a couple different recipes to create my own.  I'm a super novice in the kitchen, so if I can pull this recipe off, anyone can!  ;)

The veggie ingredients you use can be customized for your preferences, but I used: potatoes, celery, chicken and vegetable broth, carrots and scallions.

I started by peeling and cutting 6 large potatoes into cubes.  Next, I peeled and chopped up 3 large carrots.  Then came the celery -- I used 4 thick stalks because I had a whole head on hand.  Finally, the onions or leeks for flavor.  I used approx. 5 long scallion pieces since they were on sale!  As you can tell, you don't have to be exact in terms of how much and which veggies you use -- be creative!  Make sure you wash all vegetables thoroughly before chopping!

No fancy knife skills needed for this recipe -- everything gets mushed together at the end, so just cut them up into small pieces as best you can.

Once everything is chopped up, into the slow cooker it goes!  Cover with approx. 6 cups of chicken broth, vegetable broth, or good old H20.  Today, I used leftovers that were already open got fancy and mixed it up, literally.  I used 1 cup low sodium chicken broth, 3 cups low sodium vegetable broth and topped it off with 2 cups water since my veggies were still sticking out and I was out of broth.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

Once the concoction was done cooking, I mixed in 1 can of non-fat evaporated milk to thicken it a bit.  And, since I was craving a bisque instead of a broth soup with chunky veggies, I blended the soup until it was smooth.  But, you could definitely skip the blending step depending what you're in the mood for.  ;)

After smelling it cook all day... voila!

 

Ingredients:

6 large potatoes (cubed)

3 large carrots (chopped)

4 stalks celery (chopped)

5 scallions (chopped)

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth or water (enough to cover)

1 can non-fat evaporated milk

Directions:

Combine all vegetables, broth or water in large slow cooker.

Cook on high for 4-5 hours for low for 8-10 hours.  Add evaporated milk and stir before serving.

Optional: use immersion blender or food processor to puree before serving.

*****

Although it was beautifully sunny today:

view of downtown Manhattan from our apartment

...it was definitely cooooold, so we appreciated our hot soup!  Shep made us some nice melty panini sandwiches to accompany the soup.  Delish!!

How did you stay warm this weekend??  I'd love to hear from any readers out there who have a favorite soup recipe they'd like to share!