Crock Pot Recipe of the Week
I am falling in love with my crock pot. I've never been much of a soup person (I wish I were!), but the chunky things we've been making in our crock pot are making me very happy.
We started with a delicious white bean chili, which we ate with grilled cheese. Last week, we made a vegetarian chili. I spent about 15 minutes dumping stuff in the crock pot before leaving for work. That evening, I got home late from a faculty meeting and had to grab a quick bowl before heading out the door to the La Leche League meeting (which, incidentally, I ended up missing because their server was down, so I couldn't find the address, and the traffic was horrendous).
I added cheese, onions, and crumpled up some corn chips on top. Pure deliciousness! I was honestly looking forward to leftovers, but Matt and I had to leave down unexpectedly for a family funeral.
This week, Matt wants to try a chili recipe from his favorite restaurant. I'm not so enthusiastic about the long list of ingredients, but I'm eager to taste his creation!
Posts
3 comments:
I am loving my slow cooker too. Earlier this week I made a Slow Cookin' Chowder. SO GOOD! I'm always exploring easy, healthful recipes to come home to b/c my schedule is also full of long days. Hopefully this isn't too many ingredients for you. I didn't spend more than 15 minutes on prep. YUM.
Slow Cookin Texas Chowdah
2T olive oil
2T chickpea flour (regular flour is fine but I'm gluten free)
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 poblano pepper, chopped
1 serrano pepper, chopped
2 red potatoes, skin on, cubed in large chunks
2 cans organic corn, drained and rinsed
1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed
1 bay leaf
1T paprika
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
4-6 cups vegetable broth
Heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add chickpea flour and begin mixing. I was going for a roux effect. Since I used my slow cooker my oil didn’t get hot enough to really roux, even on the high heat setting. Ahh well, it still combined nicely and turned a few shades darker. After a few minutes, I added the onions, bell pepper and celery, coating them with the not-roux as they began to stirfry. After a couple of minutes I added my poblano and serrano. I let it cook for a few minutes and then dumped in my potato chunks, corn, beans and seasonings. Lastly I topped everything off with the veggie broth so that it just covered my ingredients. I let it cook on high for about 2 hours and reduced the heat to low as it cooked overnight.
We've been making a Vegetarian Mexican Crockpot Chili for years (inspired by a Food Network recipe) with:
sauteed onions and garlic (we chop in the food processor and sautee the night before), drained red, black, and pinto beans, crushed tomatoes, Mexican spices, and the trick: fine couscous. Just put it all in the crockpot in the morning and cook it on low all day.
We serve it with tortillas, mexican cheese, and sour cream (though I don't like the sour cream, myself - but everyone assembles his or her own, so it works :).
I also highly recommend the book Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker - it's cheap at Amazon. Try her French Onion Soup and Vegetable Stock recipes, especially.
*note - fine couscous: meaning small, not expensive. It's just regular couscous, but not like the big Israeli kind that's the size of Sudafeds. The small kind helps the chili achieve a kind of creaminess that would be more difficult otherwise.
We call it a "dump" recipe because you just dump in a can of this, can of that, an entire that, etc. No measuring and easy to remember.
If you weren't off sugar I'd give your our "dump" recipe for Chocolate Chunk Cake - Devil's Food cake mix, package of instant chocolate pudding, package of chocolate chips, package of sour cream. So easy. Well, that IS the recipe, basically. It's always a big hit.
Post a Comment