Recipe: Everyday Green Vegetable Slow Cooker Soup — Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinners

February 01, 2018


A brothy green vegetable soup is a welcome change of pace in a season where warm braised meats and creamy baked casseroles often take center stage. Take a hands-off approach by simmering potatoes, cauliflower, and broccoli in the slow cooker until tender. Just before serving, stir in Swiss chard and green peas for a pop of fresh green flavor.

In less than 15 minutes, you can chop the vegetables and fill the slow cooker. The slow simmer of the slow cooker gives the vegetables time to infuse a store-bought vegetable broth with fresh flavor.

To maintain broccoli's tender texture and keep its bright green hue, this isn't a soup you'll want to leave in the slow cooker all day. Instead, this soup is just right for serving when you will be out of the house for an hour or two running errands or gabbing over coffee with a friend.

The key to waking up any slow cooker soup is adding fresh herbs and acid just before serving. For this soup, stir in chopped fresh dill and squeeze the juice from half a lemon.

When it comes to leftovers, store and reheat the soup as is, or buzz the broth and vegetables with a blender until smooth. The starch of the potatoes and pectin from the cauliflower give the soup a heft with no need to add cream or roux. The bright-green hue brightens any brown-bag lunch and makes me forget I'm eating leftovers.

Make this soup a hearty meal by floating a gently poached egg in the rich broth. Once broken, the silky golden yolk adds richness to each spoonful. A sprinkle of briny feta cheese crumbles and drizzle of olive oil brings this slow cooker soup to life.

Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes Everyone Should Know

The slow cooker is a handy tool for every kind of kitchen — including ones where vegetable-driven, plant-powered, meat-free food is the order of the day. In this series we're sharing five essential vegetarian soups to make in the slow cooker.

We'll show you how to come home to a simmering pot of lentils, a better-than-the-box vegetable broth, a luxurious cream of mushroom soup, a brothy vegetable soup for chilly nights, and a classic chili that's perfect for busy weeknights or game day.

Everyday Green Vegetable Slow Cooker Soup

Serves 4; makes about 1 1/2 quarts

3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
2 cups small-dice unpeeled Yukon Gold potatoes
1 1/2 cups cauliflower florets
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets (from 1 broccoli stalk)
1 small yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for serving
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 stems Swiss chard, stems and leaves thinly sliced separately
10 ounces frozen peas
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill, plus more for serving
Options for serving: poached eggs, olive oil, crumbled feta cheese

Place the broth, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in a 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook on the LOW setting until the potatoes are tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Stir in the Swiss chard stems, cover, and cook on LOW for 5 minutes. Add the Swiss chard leaves, peas, lemon juice, and dill. Cover and cook on LOW until the Swiss chard leaves wilt, 2 to 3 minutes more. At this point you can ladle into bowls for a brothy soup, or blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Garnish with olive oil, feta cheese, black pepper, and fresh dill. A poached egg atop the unblended soup truly makes the soup a meal.

Recipe Notes

Storage: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

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