50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker Read Online Free PDF Page B

into bowls and garnish each with jalapeños and avocado.

Eggplant Soup with Cumin, Yogurt, and Dill
    Serves 4 to 6
    Eggplant
is the base for baba ghanoush. Some kind of pureed eggplant appetizer is a staple in most Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. And since everybody likes it, why not turn it into a soup and serve it with toasted pita triangles?
    3 tablespoons olive oil
    1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
    1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into chunks
    5 cups water
    3 cloves garlic
    2 teaspoons cumin seed, coarsely ground
    Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    ½ cup Greek-style yogurt or sour cream
    ¼ cup chopped fresh
dill
or
cilantro
    In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the onion for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
    Transfer the onion to a 7-quart slow cooker and add the eggplant and water. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours, until the eggplant is very tender.
    Using a garlic press, mince the garlic into the soup, then puree
     the soup using a handheld immersion blender. Coarsely grind
     the cumin seed and add it to the soup. Add the salt and pepper
    to taste.
    Ladle the soup into bowls. Mix together the yogurt and dill and top each bowl with a tablespoon or two.

French Onion Soup
    Serves 4 to 6
    Recently my neighbor Kathy made a French onion soup that called for roasting
onions
in the oven for several hours to develop flavor before making the soup itself. It seemed like too much work to her, so she scrapped the idea. I thought it was a great idea, but why not do the whole thing in the slow cooker? What an easy task: onions, slow cooked for hours in nothing but a bit of butter, become dark, rich, and full of flavor.
    3 tablespoons unsalted butter
    6 large onions, either sliced or halved and cut from pole to pole into ¼-inch-thick slices
    3 cloves garlic, sliced
    1 bay leaf
    6 sprigs fresh thyme
    ½ cup dry sherry
    6 cups water
    Salt
    Freshly ground black pepper
    4 to 6 slices of
baguette
, ½ inch thick
    8 ounces shredded
Gruyère cheese
    Place the butter, onions, and garlic in the slow cooker (without the water). Cover and cook, stirring once or twice, on HIGH for 6 to 8 hours, until the onions are nice and brown and very tender.
    Turn the heat down to LOW. Add the bay leaf, thyme, sherry, and water and salt to taste. Cover and cook for 2 hours longer.
    Preheat the broiler. Grind some fresh pepper into the soup, then ladle the soup into ovenproof bowls. Top each bowl with a slice or two of baguette and sprinkle with cheese. Place the bowls on a baking sheet positioned about 6 inches under the broiler and broil until the cheese is bubbly and melted. If you do not have ovenproof bowls, the soup is just as good with the cheese simply sprinkled on the top. It just won’t have that nice, golden crust.

Garnet Yam Soup with Coconut Cream
    Serves 4 to 6
    This fits my “good soup” requisites: made with a few simple ingredients, packed with flavor, and easy to make. Coconut cream and cilantro give the soup an Asian flair, and the rich, reddish orange soup with bright green
peas
makes a beautiful visual presentation.
    2 tablespoons butter or ghee (see here )
    1 medium onion, sliced
    3 garnet (red)
yams
, peeled and cut into chunks
    1 (15-ounce) can
coconut
cream
    5 cups water
    2 cups fresh or frozen peas
    Salt
    4 to 6 sprigs fresh
cilantro
    In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium heat and sauté the onion for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
    Transfer the onion to a 7-quart slow cooker and add the yams (without the water). Cover and cook on LOW for about 4 hours, or until the vegetables are soft and somewhat caramelized.
    Add the coconut cream and water. Using a handheld immersion blender, puree the ingredients to the desired texture. I like to leave a few chunks in the soup. Cook for 1 to 2 hours longer, until all the ingredients are uniformly hot.
    Stir in the peas, add the salt to taste, and cook for 20 to 30 minutes longer.
    Ladle the soup