It’s finally soup weather again! This has to be my favorite way to cook – dump a bunch of healthy ingredients in my crock-pot in the morning, and then come home to an amazingly nutritious and delicious soul-warming soup that I can also fridge or freeze and easily enjoy again another night with hardly any work.
My sister sent me this week’s recipe and her notes, and I’m including both hers and mine, plus a link to the original recipe. She made hers the instant pot (pressure cooker) way, and I made a vegetarian version in my crock-pot. We both really enjoyed our versions, so let your personal likes and dislikes steer you, too.
First things first. Here’s the original recipe.
My sister’s notes on the pressure-cooker or instant pot version:
- I used a scant 2 tsp of adobo sauce and 2 oz of tomato sauce.
- I generally buy whole chickens (cheaper) and butcher them myself. For this recipe I used one (half) breast with ribs attached.
- I sauteed the onions and garlic, added cumin and oregano, then tomato sauce, adobo sauce, chicken broth, the breast, then set the pressure cooker to high and let it cook for 20 minutes.
- When time was up I let the pressure out, shredded the chicken (tossed the bones), added the meat back to the pot, then added beans, frozen corn, cilantro, and cooked for 5 minutes on the stove (no pressure).
- I tested for flavor and added a little salt.
- I did NOT use the can of tomatoes.
- I make my own chicken broth and beans so I can control the sodium (none added).
- I garnished with chopped cilantro and green onion and a small dollop of sour cream.
My notes on the vegetarian crock-pot version:
- I didn’t bother sauteing anything first, I literally dumped all the non-topping ingredients in the crock-pot, turned it on and left.
- The recipe suggests 4-6 hours on low, but mine was on for 11 hours and it was fine. Pro-tip: I use a timer that I bought specifically designed for Christmas lights when I need to delay turning my crock-pot on but I’m not at home. They’re widely available this time of year if you need one.
- I made the following changes to the ingredients:
- A whole small onion
- The lowest sodium veggie broth I could find instead of chicken broth (check your labels, some low sodium broths aren’t very low-sodium in my opinion).
- I used the lowest sodium canned ingredients available
- I left out the cilantro and used it as a topping only
- I don’t care for adobo sauce, so I used a whole fresh jalapeno instead, minced
- I left out the chicken breast
- I used a big dollop of plain yogurt as a topping instead of sour-cream, because I already had it on hand and it’s very nearly the same thing, along with some fresh cilantro and the juice of a lime.