5 a Day Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup

This slow cooker vegetable soup provides a whole set of  five a day portions.  Originally made from what was in my freezer as I’m trying to eat everything that’s in it and clear it out before the run up to Xmas.  In the photo above, it’s ready to be blended down into a soup!

This is a simple, lazy, slow cooker soup to get rid of all those things you bought that are cluttering up the freezer… bought when you had a plan.  And, surprisingly, it’s often the leftover foods and things lurking in your freezer that are the five a day foods you’ve been putting off eating!

I had originally bought the mixed vegetables with a slow cooker soup in mind, to be fair, I’d simply not got round to making soup as other foods were available and so it was easy to find excuses not to make it.

As I used the contents of my freezer, you’re unlikely to have the same items, but that doesn’t matter, you can mix and match!

I used a pack of cheap frozen, chopped vegetables I’d bought from Sainsburys, this one contains carrots, cauliflower and peas; some leeks I’d bought from Lidl on one of their Lidl special offers, I’d washed/chopped and frozen them and thrown them into the freezer; the frozen tomato juice from a tin of tomatoes I’d strained off and frozen (you could just use 2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste instead, or a small tin of tomato juice or some passata); a liquid stock pot – I had been “gifted” this by my sibling who was having a cupboard sort out; a punnet of cherry tomatoes I’d bought over two weeks ago at Lidl and had barely used.

Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup Recipe:

Makes 4 portions, about 1½ pints, or 1 litre.

Ingredients:

• 750 grams frozen mixed vegetables: I had some fresh I’d frozen + half a 1Kg pack from a supermarket
• the juice from a tin of tomatoes: I’d kept/frozen this a few days ago
• 200 grams of cherry tomatoes
• one chicken stock pot
• 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
• salt/pepper to taste

Method:

1. I tipped the frozen vegetables into the slow cooker, still frozen.
2. Add the (still frozen) tomato juice
3. Empty the whole punnet of cherry tomatoes in
4. Add a big splash of Worcestershire sauce
5. Sprinkle in some salt/pepper to taste
6. Make up the stock pot with 200ml hot water and add that to the slow cooker
   
7. Put the lid on and put on High for 3 hours – this is because it all started off as frozen.
8. Turn the slow cooker down to Low and leave on for a further 4 hours.
9. Blend the soup with a stick blender to the thickness/consistency you want (adding in a splash of boiling water if it’s a bit too thick for you).  Alternatively you can use a food processor, a potato masher or even a fork if you’ve no equipment!

I didn’t eat this soup straight away – I’ve decanted it straight into microwaveable soup mugs and popped them in the fridge!

What Counts Towards Five a Day?

This soup contains cauliflower, carrots, peas, broccoli, tomatoes and tomato juice.  Serving four people this one soup contains more than the five a day – and is easy to make.  It’s a winning soup!

Changes for Another Time:

While the above worked a treat, I did use the slow cooker just to be able to empty the freezer.  What I’d usually do to make a soup in the slow cooker would be:

• Defrost the vegetables first – by emptying into a large bowl and covering with boiling water for 1-2 minutes.
• Defrost the tomato juice, 1-2 minutes in the microwave in a microwave safe jug or bowl.
• Chop/mash the tomatoes.

By doing this, the cooking time can be reduced, with the soup just requiring one hour on High (not three).

But, today I achieved what I set out to achieve: to make a simple vegetable soup in the slow cooker without any extra effort or washing up than was necessary.  A simple “Dump and Go” solution.  Slow cookers are good for this lazy cooking 🙂

Storing Homemade Soup: How Long Does it Keep?

A soup like this, kept in a lidded container in the fridge, will be fine for 3-4 days.  While it could be eaten a day or two after this your ability to “fancy it” will diminish… but you can always freeze it.  I’ll typically decant the soup into microwaveable soup mugs and put them into the fridge, ready to grab and microwave – and after 3 days I can just pick the whole mug up and stick it in the freezer as it is.  This is the way I do it as it minimises “effort” 🙂

Freezing Soup from the Slow Cooker

To freeze this soup simply pour it into freezer bags, or freezer containers.  One great container to use is to keep your old margarine/butter tubs, then just line the tub with a freezer bag and pour a portion of soup in – once it’s frozen the bag will be small and stackable, taking up little space in the freezer.

Use the soup within 3 months for the best taste.  This soup would be fine to eat within a year if you didn’t get round to it.  There’s nothing unsafe about eating it after it’s been in the freezer a long time, it’ll start to lose taste after a long time and it might lose colour and look unappetising, but it’ll be safe to eat still.

Reheat Soup:

You can reheat this soup in a microwave in 3-4 minutes, or in a saucepan in 4-5 minutes.  If you’ve frozen the soup you can reheat from frozen, the microwave will do this, or in the saucepan start by covering the bottom of the saucepan with the tiniest amount of boiling water, then use a middle-heat until it’s all melted, then turn up the heat until it boils.

Great for taking in a food flask – whether that’s for a packed lunch for work, or as a hot meal if you’re out and about, maybe walking and rambling!

Menu Cost: 

Everything I’ve used was bought on special offer weekends, or from the basics supermarket range.  The total cost of this soup was about £1, making a cost of £0.25 per portion.