Slow Cooker Soup is the gift that keeps on giving.

Monkey Boy is still supremely crusty and the rest of us have the sickness lurking in the wings, so soup was definitely in order today.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to teach the 2 year old with the crazy temper how to wield a knife, so he was right there with me, hacking on and hacking up the veggies and chucking them with great force into the slow cooker. I figured the prolonged cooking time would burn up the plague germs he contributed to the recipe, but even if it didn’t, it was worth it just to hear his raspy giggle as he tossed in each individual piece of 6 cups of diced veggies and exclaimed “Ploop!”with every landing. Poor kid deserves some fun; as my husband pointed out, with that cold in his chest, it sounds like we’re rooming with an even moodier Kat von D this week.

Anyway the soup turned out amazing. Using a 6-8 cup slow cooker makes it super quick to make, but you could do it in a stock pot too: just saute the onions, garlic and veggies in a little water or broth for a few minutes before adding the stock. Next, bring the whole thing to a boil, cover and reduce heat and simmer for about thirty minutes, adding cooked macaroni at the end or uncooked macaroni for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

I just used things that were hanging out in the pantry and crisper, so feel free to change out the veggies to whatever you have on hand. I doubled up on the garlic to burn out the germy-worms and it made for some aromatic brewin’. And it’s a big batch, so we’ll have leftovers for a couple days at least.

Now you soup too!

Valley’s Vegan Ploop Soup

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 large cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1 small can corn
• 1 can chick peas
• 1 medium potato, diced
• 3 medium carrots, diced
• 1 medium yam, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 900ml Veggie broth
• 1/4 cup soy sauce, Tamari or Braggs
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 tbs Italian Seasoning (or a tsp each rubbed rosemary, oregano, and basil)
• 3 Bay leaves
• 2 cups cooked whole wheat elbow macaroni

Method

1. Put everything except for macaroni into a 6-8 cup slow cooker set on high Remember to say “ploop” as each piece lands in the pot. This step is key or your soup will taste like hot garbage. Cook for 5-6 hours.
2. Remove Bay leaves and stir in cooked macaroni. Adjust seasoning as necessary and ENJOY!