Crock Pot Soup? | Imamother

suzyq

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 8:32 am

The weather is supposed to be yucky all weekend. I don't make cholent, so I was thinking of making soup in the crock pot instead. If I made the soup on Friday, and put it on the "warm" setting right before Shabbos, do you think it would turn out ok for Shabbos lunch?

soboz

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 8:37 am

I do this all the time. On Friday morning put raw veggies and chicken bones (sometimes I use a couple of chicken breasts cut into chunks) in crockpot. Cover with boiling water. Set crockpot to high until mid afternoon then turn down to low. Makes a great chicken soup. Smile

bubby

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 8:47 am

I make the soup on the stove & transfer it to the crockpot before Shabbos so we have soup both meals. 35 years & it's never gone off!

shoshina

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 9:59 am

I make soup in the crockpot weekdays as well and my crockpot has a setting for 12 hours of cooking on high, followed by automatically switching to the "keep warm" setting. I understand that the 'keep warm' setting keeps the food at a safe temperature.

My personal favorite for this is French Onion soup if we're doing a dairy meal-- you can put the onions etc in the pot raw and the longer you leave it the better it is!

suzyq

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 10:47 am

Shoshina - Can you give me your onion soup recipe? I was thinking about making that (my DH LOVES onions) without the cheese. Thanks!

shoshina

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 11:53 am

Suzyq:

Sure! First credit due to A Year of Cooking Slowly blog, modifications are mine to make it dairy, but you could use beef broth and margarine to make it fleishig if you're going without the cheese

Turn your slow cooker on High
Put 1 tablespoon butter/margarine in the crock, let it melt while you are slicing
About one pound of onions into thin rings (or, if you value your fingertips like I do, half rings) a little variation in thickness is good, the paper-thin slices melt into the broth and the thicker ones give you more chewy delicious onions.
Onions into the cooker, stir around so they get coated with butter/margarine, keep the cooker on high to start the browning process
Add two teaspoons of sugar, which encourages carmelization, and one teaspoon of salt (a bit less if there is salt in your beef/veggie stock) you can always add more at the end but slow cooker concentrates the salt
For dairy, I use half vegetable stock (about 4 1/2 cups) and half water in which a vegetarian beef bullion cube has been dissolved (about 4 1/2 cups) I make the stock myself and add dried shitake mushrooms for the brown color, but whatever the store has is also fine. If you're using just vegetable stock I recommend using a little more worchester sauce. If you're doing fleishig, beef broth in ratio of 2-1 with water
About 2 oz of sherry
About two tablespoons of Worchester sauce

Mix everything together well, turn the slow cooker to low and leave it alone for at LEAST 10 hours, more is better or the onions won't be soft enough. I toast large baguette slices, butter them and melt gruyere on top, but you could skip the cheese! A lot of the water cooks off so you may look in and see a big pot of onions and inadequate broth-- I just add more water on a weeknight, for shabbos I start with more liquid than I think I need.

suzyq

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 11:58 am

Thank you SO much - I can't wait to try it!

1Life2Live

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 2:36 pm

soboz wrote:

sounds yummy! Can I put frozen chicken thighs in?