Roasty Toasty Veggie Soup

“Roasty Toasty Veggie Soup”

Created by April Jones, March 04, 2014

 I worked myself up another fine soup, gang. The blessing of storing up veggies at the end of each season, is it allows for quick prep when it comes to winter soups! I pulled down from my freezer  multiple bags of veggies I had labored over at the end of last summer. Because I had already done all the "prep" work, all I had to do was measure out the preferred portions, toss it in the crockpot, and go on with my day. Of course, store-bought produce works too, but I can't tell you the satisfaction it brings today consuming what you diligently prepared for...yesterday. The only
additional ingredients I added were my seasoning, fresh potatoes, tomatoes, and a can of garbonzo beans. You do what you need to do when it comes to the veggies, but this is how I did it.

Add first Ingredients to Crockpot

1.5 pt. Stock of Choice

1.5 pt h20

1 ½ C any additional liquid (I would HIGHLY recommend a beer here!)

4 extremely ripe tomatoes, sliced to preference (this can be substituted with 1 can of diced UNSALTED tomatoes)

2C frozen field peas

4C frozen, sliced okra

2C frozen, sliced and quartered zucchini

3C frozen, sliced carrot

1 can garbanzo beans

1 oz. fresh, finely chopped Italian Parsley

1 small bay leaf

Sea Salt to taste * I like to Add 1 T per every 4 C of veggies. This seems to work well for the taste of our family, but use what you need and/or prefer.

Pepper to taste

Additional ingredients to follow:

Approximately 4-5 pieces of bacon (you may substitute with 3 T Olive Oil should your prefer this vegan)

½-1 whole purple onion, cut to preference

3-4 cloves of garlic, cut to preference

2C frozen corn

4-5 red potatoes, cubed

After all "initial" ingredients have been added to the Crock Pot on LOW, prepare bacon  and set aside on a towel lined surface. Take frozen corn and blacken in bacon grease. Remove from skillet & place directly into Crock Pot (you might wish to first place your corn on toweled surface, but I have yet to find the oil enough to negatively affect my soup). 

 

 Use the additional grease to blacken the potatoes, along with sautéing the onions and garlic. It is ideal to cover with a lid to soften. My family prefers our potatoes and corn to be VERY crisp and golden. I feel it is so much more flavorful when the few extra minutes are allotted to gain the golden look on most all of the skin and flesh, but you do what works for your pallet and your time table.   Once a golden crisp has been brought to one or more sides of the potatoes, remove from the skillet and add to the soup.

 

Once all excess oil has been removed, crumble up the bacon, and then place all additional ingredients into the crockpot. Add salt to season and allow to cook for approximately 6 hours; 3 if cooking on HIGH. Serve & enjoy! What you don't eat or use...CAN!

 

 b’OMMM’appetite!