Rustic Vegetable Soup

I know, three weeks of recipes in a row.  But I have found these soup recipes to be a great addition to our meal repertoire. Although I will admit that when Silent Sam looks at me on Saturday morning (pre-grocery shopping) and asks what I am going to make for Sunday soup night, I feel a bit snarly. (What? Try something new AGAIN?

Truth be told, I really hate making something and having it not work out.  I really bugs me.  So this whole try out new soup recipes thing is a bit hard for me.  Maybe that is why I am such a bad cook.  Maybe if I tried more, I would learn what would work and what does not work.  It is a good thought but I don’t think it is going to happen.



Today’s recipe is from the Crock Pot: Diabetic Recipes cookbook.  This cookbook has crock pot recipes and it touts that every recipe is 350 calories or less.  If you would like a copy, you can click on the picture above and it will take you directly to Amazon.  You might find it a good investment for $3.90. (plus shipping)

Completely off subject, I did want you to know that the Crock Pot is 75 years old.  That is right, brides have been getting crock pots for that long.  The venerable appliance is enjoying a resurgence of popularity these days. Apparently, you can even buy them with NFL logos on the sides.  They appear to be very expensive though…

Rustic Vegetable Soup
Serves 8

Ingredients

1 jar (16 oz) Picante Sauce
1 package (10 oz) frozen mixed vegetables
1 package (10 oz) frozen cut green beans
1 can (about 10 oz.) condensed beef broth, undiluted
1-2 baking potatoes, cut into 1/2 in. pieces
1 medium green pepper chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

We used mild picante sauce and think that was just fine.  Also, the original recipe calls for the vegetables to be thawed.  I am not sure why but I did not thaw them.  I did use the Birds Eye Steamfresh mix that has carrots, corn, and asparagus.  The asparagus did not come out well in this soup.  (I used it last week with no problem but it came out stiff in this recipe.) So you might want to not use that particular blend. 

Also, we could not find condensed beef broth.  I used regular beef broth and it worked out well. In contrast to some soup recipes, this one does not have a lot of fluid; it is not real “soupy”.  It is a lot of vegetables, potatoes, and peppers with some broth. 

Although the recipe calls for eight servings, we only had four servings. 

Directions
Take all the ingredients EXCEPT the parsley and put them in the crock pot.  I mixed them up a bit.
Cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours. 

Stir in the parsley just before serving. 

I did not use the parsley.  I sprinkled on some Parmesan cheese over the top.  Okay,since the soup is so low in calories, I was willing to add a few calories. 

Nutritional Information
Calories – 80, Total fat – 0 g., Saturated Fat - 0 g., Protein – 3 g., Carbohydrate – 16g., Cholesterol – 0 mg., Fiber – 4 g., Sodium 540 mg.

I hope that you enjoy these soup recipes as much as we have.  It has been a nice change for our Sunday night suppers.

Thanks for reading!