Need thick, stick-to-your-ribs soups made in a crock pot

Cafe Society
1

We’re going to Helen, GA with the extended family, and I will be responsible for making dinner one night. (Each family is responsible for their own breakfast and lunch.)

Rather than spending the entire day slaving over a hot stove, I want to throw some stuff in a crock pot, serve it with nice hot crusty French bread, and have everyone serve themselves a nice flavorful steaming cup of Something.

I’m leaning toward split-pea with ham, bacon, maybe some onion and garlic, but it’s not at the top of my list. The restrictions are:

  1. No tomato soup. Ivylad doesn’t like Tomato soup.
  2. No mushrooms. I don’t like mushrooms
  3. It must be thick and creamy. None of this wimpy beef bullion crap. I want something that will satisfy.
  4. The ingredients must be easily transported, as we are driving up from Florida.
  5. It must be cooked in a crock pot.
2

If you go with the ham and pea soup, may I suggest cornbread or corn muffins instead of French bread? Cornbread just GOES better with legume soups.

Chef Troy taught me to make my bean soups with chicken bullion instead of water. It really perks up the flavor of those beans. Also, with split pea, I’d chop up some celery and grate some carrot into it.

Mostly we use our crockpot for roast beef, not soups. Good luck.

3

I suppose you can make this in a crock pot, but I made it in a regular old soup pot and it didn’t take long.
2lbs Italian sausage
3 Carrots
1 Celery
2 Onions
2 cloves crushed garlic (or tablespoon of the already mushed in a jar kind)
2 oz either prosciutto or, if you like spicy, Capicola
3 cans of either Cannellini, Navy or Northern beans
4 cups of chicken broth
Sage, Rosemary, Oregano and pepper (no salt! It will be salty enough without adding more)

Put some olive oil in the pot (did I mention olive oil in the ingredients list?) and brown the Italian sausage. You don’t have to cook them all the way, just brown the outsides. Remove from pot and chop it up into bite-sized pieces. Chop the veggies into nice, big bite sized pieces and put in the oil. Sautee until veggies look nice. Add the ham. Put garlic in last-- nothing worse than burnt garlic-- along with the spices.

Mush up one can of beans, not too fine. Add to pot along with broth and the other 2 cans of beans. Bring up to simmer and then lower heat. Cook as long as you want ( the longer it simmers together, the better it tastes).

Like I said, not crock pot, but stick to your ribs good.

4

Regardless of what recipe you choose, I have one word for you: roux. Melt two tablespoons of butter, add two tablespoons of flour, stir for a couple of minutes at low heat, then add to your soup at the last minute. Adds that stick-to-your-ribs thickness and also binds the other ingredients together so they don’t separate and collect on the bottom.

5

These arent really soups but for stick to your rib goodness, I suggest chile or maybe beef stroganoff

both can be made in a crock pot and will definitly fill everyones stomachs

6

I’ve thought about chili, but I’m in a soup mood.

You guys are making me hungry. and Fear, I’ve made a roux for my Loaded Baked Potato Soup…and you are absolutely right. But that’s not a crock pot soup.

7

You can put a chicken in a crock pot with broth, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, and whatever herbs and spices suit your fancy, cook it overnight, and fish out the bones in the morning.

8

ivylass, are you a savvy enough crockpot enthusiast to adapt a stew recipe? I’ve got a killer recipe for “Chinese Hot Pot of Beef and Vegetables” that is painfully good. Essentially beef, carrots, turnips and spinach, with buckets of ginger, garlic, chili paste, cinnamon and anise, plus miscellaneous flavorings. I’ve been wanting to take a crack at CrockPotting this.

It’s straight from one of the Cooking Light cookbooks, and it’s about a 3-step stew: first beef, then veggies, then spinach at the last minute. I’d bet it’s not too tough to meddle with. I’m thinking it could also morph into a tasty pot roast, in a pinch. My feelings about turnips underwent a 180 after putting them, faithfully, into my first shot at making this, and they were tremendous.

But I won’t bother pasting it in if you’d rather not mess about with experimentation at this stage.

Damn. Now I’m really hungry.

9

Are you not allowing tomatoes at all, or just not a strictly tomato-based soup? Because I’ve got a killer one with white beans, kale, Itallian sausae, and rosemary, but it does involve tomatoes.

10

How I Make Bean Soup:

Prep time: Couple of days, but worth it.

Start with several smoked ham hocks in the crockpot: at least two or three, four if they’ll fit. Toss in a couple of bay leaves and about a tablespoon of peppercorns. Add however many cans of chicken broth will fit (usually three–you want enough to mostly cover the hocks) and cook several hours, or until the hocks are falling apart. Throw the entire thing into the fridge to cool off overnight.

When chilled the next day, use utensil of your choice to remove and discard what fat has collected and solidified on top of the soup (there will be plenty due to the hocks). Begin to reheat the soup until it melts (good hocks will gelatinize the broth). When it is liquid again, remove the hocks and strain the broth, returning the broth to the pot. Toss the bay leaves, and crush the now softened peppercorns, returning them to the pot. Sort through the hocks and pick out the meat, chopping it and returning it to the pot. Toss the scraps in the yard for the crows. :slight_smile:

Pick through and rinse about 1 1/2 cups of dry mixed beans and add them to the soup. Add about 3/4 cup of pearled barley. Add whatever herbs strike your fancy. Toss in some chopped veggies–I use a few carrots sliced, a few celery stalks chopped, a medium white onion chopped, possibly a green bell pepper chopped if I have one, and (I know, it’s weird, but it’s good) a drained can of sliced water chestnuts. Oh, and garlic. Can’t forget about the garlic. Several smashed cloves are good. Cook this for hours (I usually cook on low for at least 12-15 hours 'cause I’m a freak).

Cook this long enough, and the starch in the beans and barley will cook out into the broth and thicken it beautifully; but you can always toss in the roux that Fear Itself mentioned.

You can throw the vegetables in more towards the end of the cooking time if you want some texture left in them. Myself, I shoot for pure flavor, so I cook them to death.

More meat can be added, as well, if the hocks don’t provide as much as you’d like. Chopped ham or smoked sausage work well, but I’ve been known to open the stray can of SPAM for this when I needed it.

Of course, the final step in preparation would be to again refrigerate this for a day or two, just to give everything a chance to mingle and mature. The final result when cold is comparable to peanut butter in viscosity, and when reheated, only slightly less so.

Full of smokey hammy goodness, though.

11

Salieri, please e-mail me the recipe. My address is in my profile.

Tomatoes as ingredients are acceptable, but no tomato soup (if that makes any sense.)

Dijon, that sounds delicious, but I’m not sure it will travel well. I need to be able to take the ingredients up, then throw everything in the pot and go shopping. I’ve saved your recipe, though, for a nice Monday evening meal.

12

Salieri, please email me as well, or post for everybody. That sounds great.

13

Gagillion bean soup. You know, the one with 16 varieties? With polish sausage or italian sausage, onion, carrots, minced garlic, and diced potato. It gets very thick, so you don’t really need to add anything to it.

14

How about a nice Italian minestrone? Some recipes call for tomatoes but could probably survive without them. Barf beeley … er, beef barley soup is always a crowd pleaser. Another favorite is leek and potato soup. There’s a zillion ways to gussy up that recipe. Here’s a good looking minestrone recipe from this site:

INGREDIENTS

extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups cannellini beans, cooked
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 medium carrots, diced
1/2 savoy cabbage, cut into small pieces
1 medium leek, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 vegetable buillon cubes
water
salt to taste
handful of fresh parsley
1-2 tablespoons basil, chopped
1 cup farro, uncooked (optional)

15

INTERNET STEW

Required:

Crock pot
water
three or four potatoes
2 lbs. stew beef, chopped to desired size (but hamburger will do)
large onion
couple of carrots
4-7 bouillon cubes
1-2 packets brown gravy mix
(optional) couple sticks celery
(optional) can of mixed vegetables
Salt and pepper

Plug in crock pot, and set to HIGH.
Fill halfway with water.
Add stew beef and bouillon cubes.
Dice potatoes. Peel, if you like.
Peel carrots. Dice.
Peel onion. Dice.
Dice the celery.
Add diced vegetables. Hold off on the canned stuff, though.

Add water until the stuff in the pot is completely covered, but leave at least an inch between the waterline and the top of the pot. This stuff is going to boil. Stir in the gravy mix before the water gets too hot.

Now go noodle around on the internet for three or four hours. Check on the stew every hour or so. When it’s boiling pretty well, kick the temperature down to MEDIUM. The stew should be ready to serve after about six hours. When the meat is cooked, go ahead and add the canned veggies.

Mmm.