Name: Slow Cooker Vegetarian Taco Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 6 h
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 1-2 tablespoon olive or coconut oil; 1 small onion (diced); 1 jalapeno (seeds & ribs removed, diced); 1 clove garlic (finely minced-I used my garlic press); 2 Cups or 1 can black beans (drained & rinsed if canned); 2 Cups or 1 can pinto beans (drained & rinsed if canned); 2 Cups or 1 can kidney beans (drained & rinsed if canned); 1 28-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes; 2 Cups vegetable broth (you could also use chicken broth if you are not concerned about it being completely vegetarian); 1 tablespoon chili powder; 2 Teaspoons onion powder; 2 Teaspoons garlic powder; 1 teaspoon paprika; 1 teaspoon dried dill; 1/4 teaspoon cumin; 1/4 cup chopped parsley; 1/4 cup chopped cilantro; 1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste); 3 Ears corn (cleaned, kernels cut off of ears) or 2 cups frozen corn; grated cheddar or monterey jack cheese, sour cream, and chopped cilantro (if desired)

Vegetarian Taco Soup (Slow Cooker or Instant Pot)

January 27, 2017

This vegetarian taco soup is healthy and delicious, and it’s easy to make in either your slow cooker or your Instant Pot!

I got two slow-cookers (AKA Crock-Pots) when I got married. Actually, three people bought them for me but one of my husband’s friends saw the other two that we had already gotten in our apartment when he came in town for our wedding and took the one he had gotten us back (he subsequently replaced said slow-cooker gift with DVDs of Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, much cooler gifts anyway, at least for these children of the eighties). It took me a few years to find my panache as a slow-cooker chef. I don’t really remember my mom using a slow-cooker when I was a kid and honestly I’m not even sure we had one back then (she does have a couple now). My early attempts at slow-cooker cooking included roasts (generally of the chuck variety), beef stew, chili, and taco soup from a recipe given to me by our school nurse (more on that in a minute).

The first food blog that I ever followed with any sort of faithfulness was Stephanie O’Dea’s A Year of Slow Cooking, which I started reading after seeing Stephanie on The Rachael Ray Show discussing her pledge to use her slow cooker every day for a year. And blog about it. The good, the bad, and the ugly. That was in 2008 and she’s still adding new recipes, though not daily anymore. She’s also released two cookbooks: Make It Fast, Cook It Slow (which I own) and More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow (which I don’t own). Anyway, Stephanie made so many interesting things in her slow cooker….pasta, chicken nuggets, rice, brownies (okay, so none of those foods are particularly interesting….I really just meant that it was interesting that she made them in her slow cooker) and it inspired me to use mine more.

Slow cooking is not fool proof, and you can’t just dump a bunch of ingredients into your slow cooker and be assured a delicious, perfectly cooked meal. Sometimes it happens like that, and sometimes your chicken has the texture of a paper bag (which is why I never cook chicken breasts in the slow cooker. I got burned, figuratively speaking, one too many times). Not all slow cooker meals take kindly to just being left for hours and hours and hours. Baked goods can burn, or you can forget to spray the stoneware when you make slow cooker French toast and then you have to trash your entire slow cooker because no matter how much you soak it the bread just won’t come off the side (not that it’s happened to anyone I know).

Some meals, though, are magical. Like this taco soup. For many years I made taco soup that contained a whole lot of packaged stuff, and chances are if you’ve had taco soup it was probably pretty similar to what I’ve had. This one isn’t devoid of packaged foods…while I had pinto and black beans I’d cooked myself, the only kidney beans I had in the house were in a can, and it’s not tomato season (and even if it was I’m not sure I’d waste perfect seasonal tomatoes in a soup) so I used canned tomatoes. However, I didn’t see any need to add Ro*tel when I could cook a jalapeño instead, and I had all the spices in my pantry to make my own taco seasoning and ranch dressing mix…without the filler. Oh, and I doubled the beans and left out the meat. You could use half the beans and add a pound of cooked and drained ground beef….but I promise this is just as good (if not better).

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Bite!

Mary

Yield: 6 servings

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Taco Soup

This soup is equally simple and delicious whether cooked in the slow cooker or Instant Pot. Instant Pot directions are included in the "notes" at the end of the recipe.

15 minPrep Time:

6 hrCook Time:

6 hr, 15 Total Time:

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Ingredients

1-2 tablespoon olive or coconut oil
1 small onion (diced)
1 jalapeno (seeds & ribs removed, diced)
1 clove garlic (finely minced-I used my garlic press)
2 Cups or 1 can black beans (drained & rinsed if canned)
2 Cups or 1 can pinto beans (drained & rinsed if canned)
2 Cups or 1 can kidney beans (drained & rinsed if canned)
1 28-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
2 Cups vegetable broth (you could also use chicken broth if you are not concerned about it being completely vegetarian)
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 Teaspoons onion powder
2 Teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
3 Ears corn (cleaned, kernels cut off of ears) or 2 cups frozen corn
grated cheddar or monterey jack cheese, sour cream, and chopped cilantro (if desired)

Instructions

Preheat the oil over medium heat in a medium pan. Sauté the onion and jalapeno until softened and the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for an additional 30 seconds. Add the chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, dill, paprika, and cumin and cook for another 30 seconds.
While the onion mixture is cooking, place the beans, canned tomatoes, and broth into a 4-6 quart slow-cooker. Add the onion mixture and stir to combine. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 6 hours.
Just before serving, add the corn kernels, parsley, and cilantro. Cover and heat through for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. Serve with tortilla chips, grated cheese, sour cream, and more chopped cilantro if desired.

Notes

To make this in the Instant Pot, preheat the Instant Pot on the saute setting. Follow the directions in step 1 then turn the Instant Pot off once the onions, jalapeno, and garlic are cooked through and the spices have been added. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Close the Instant Pot and make sure the vent is closed. Press the "Bean/Chili" button and set the timer for ten minutes. Once the cooking is complete, quick release the pressure and serve with desired toppings.

https://chattavore.com/slow-cooker-vegetarian-taco-soup/

This vegetarian taco soup is healthy and delicious, and it's easy to make in either your slow cooker or your Instant Pot! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder & Peach-White Wine Sauce (Plus Instant Pot Adaptation)

January 16, 2017

Slow cooker pork shoulder with peach white wine sauce is so easy and delicious, and it will give you tons of leftovers to make into other tasty dishes! Instant Pot pressure cooker instructions included.

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure statement.

Blogging is a funny thing. I’m a very introverted person. I don’t love parties or really even having people over very often (though that probably has more to do with how messy my house is except for the two months in the summer that I get to be a full-time blogger). If you met me and we didn’t know each other you might think I was kind of awkward and you would definitely think I was shy. I’m not awkward nor am I shy, but I definitely give off these vibes until you get to know me.
Growing up I wanted to be an actress. I think that’s what I wanted to do until probably about 10th grade, when reality set in and I realized that making a living as an actress was a pretty lofty goal. I like to be on stage, though, and as difficult as it can be for me to carry on a conversation with someone I just met, I have no problem with public speaking. I guess this is kind of a form of public speaking, and I definitely have no problem with this. I’m not a private person, just an introvert.

When I started my blog back in 2011, one of the things that I never even thought of was that I would become part of a blogging community. It’s been very interesting to “meet” people online and have those online acquaintances gradually turn into friends. One of my blogger friends is Jessie Weaver. She’s my most frequent commenter and I can always count on her to give me a great suggestion (or, ahem, command) for a recipe. It’s to her that I owe panko-crusted sriracha drizzled pork sandwiches and summer squash soup. I ran into her once in Enzo’s and we recognized each other instantly. It was a little surreal to have an encounter like that with a friend…that I’d never met before. We finally got a chance to have dinner this past week, a cured meat drenched affair at Beast + Barrel (I got a Pimm’s cup and an executive chef salad, both of which I highly recommend). And it wasn’t awkward at all, because, oddly enough, even though I’ve only met Jessie once before, I know her.

Anyway, like I was saying…I can always count on her for a great meal suggestion. The latest one was a peach pork loin a la Alleia, which, as she said, is “magically delicious”. I stumbled across a recipe for oven-roasted pork shoulder with peach sauce in America’s Test Kitchen’s book The Make Ahead Cook. A lot of you have indicated that you’d like to see more make-ahead or slow cooker meals on Chattavore, so I morphed this into a slow cooker pork shoulder with peach-white wine sauce. Um, yeah. So easy and amazingly tasty.

And it comes with bonus meals! In the upcoming days, look for posts about easy meals that can be made with leftovers from this fantastic slow cooker pork shoulder pork shoulder!

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Plate!

Mary

Yield: 4 servings plus lots of leftover pork
Slow Cooker Pork Shoulder with Peach-White Wine Sauce
This recipe is adapted from Make Ahead Meals by Cook's Illustrated
20 minPrep Time:
8 hr, 30 Cook Time:
8 hr, 50 Total Time:

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Ingredients
For the Pork Shoulder
4-5 pound pork shoulder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup kosher salt
For the Peach Sauce
2 cups sliced peaches, frozen or fresh, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups dry white wine or Vermouth
2 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 sprigs thyme
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
Instructions
Rub the pork: Combine the sugar and salt in a small bowl. Cut a crosshatch pattern into the fat cap of the pork. Rub the sugar/salt mixture all over the pork. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place on a large plate and refrigerate overnight.
Cook the pork: remove the pork from the plastic. Brush away excess rub. Place into a 4 or 5-quart slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove the pork to a cutting board and tent with foil. Pour the juices into a measuring cup or fat separator. Skim off the fat or use a spoon to remove the fat from the juices. Reserve 2 tablespoons juice.
Place the juice, peaches, wine or Vermouth, 2 tablespoons of the vinegar, sugar, and thyme into a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook until reduced to a thick sauce, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining vinegar and the mustard.
Serve the pork topped with the peach sauce. Save extra pork for other uses.
Notes
It's easy to adapt this recipe to the pressure cooker function on your Instant Pot. Just cut the pork into 4-6 pieces before applying the rub. Place in the Instant Pot and set to the "meat" setting for 45 minutes. Allow the Instant Pot to depressurize naturally. Shred the meat then follow the directions as listed to make the sauce.
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https://chattavore.com/slow-cooker-pork-shoulder-peach-white-wine-sauce/

This recipe made enough leftovers for me to make three-that’s right, three-more meals from it.

Slow Cooker BBQ Meatballs

October 3, 2016

These slow cooker BBQ meatballs are so easy to make and they’re true comfort food. They are perfect to eat on their own or on sliders!

The honest truth is that I’ve never been much of a football (or any other sports) watcher, though in the last few something has snapped and Philip started watching college games on Saturdays and NFL on Sundays, so I’ve actually gotten sucked in (a little) and actually learned a little bit about the game. I now actually find it interesting and even know to some degree what’s going on. I don’t even know who I am anymore.

Still, I don’t follow any particular team and I have no clue if we even watched any games where the teams playing for the elusive ring tomorrow evening were playing. I’m sure we’ll watch the game, at least in part, but it will be on our couch because apparently we’re not cool enough to get invited to anyone’s party, and even if we did…..we probably wouldn’t go (which, now that I think about it, is probably why no one invites us to their party).

Regardless of which team you are pulling for, there’s one thing that everyone can agree on: tail gate food is almost as important as the game itself. You need finger food…food that can be eaten without much attention to how you eat it. Nothing that has to be cut, nothing that takes a lot of effort. You’ve got to keep your eyes on the game. Meatballs fit the bill. I’m sure that lots and lots of frozen meatballs in bags were sold this past weekend….but if you, like me, would rather not buy meatballs in a bag, this recipe, adapted from The Pioneer Woman, is perfect for you. You could bake these instead of putting them in the slow cooker (just half the ingredients for the sauce and bake everything in a baking dish at 350 degrees for 45 minutes), but why would you want to do that? These slow cooker BBQ meatballs are great on their own, but we stacked them on dinner rolls and topped them with super-sharp cheddar (by the way, they’re also wonderful with egg noodles or mashed potatoes!).

You should serve these slow cooker BBQ meatballs at your next tail gate party!

Mary

Yield: 24 meatballs
Slow Cooker Barbecue Meatballs
This recipe is adapted from The Pioneer Woman .
20 minPrep Time:
4 hr, 20 Cook Time:
4 hr, 40 Total Time:

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Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cups rolled or quick cooking oats
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt (I used kosher)
a few good grinds of black pepper
1/2 cup flour
canola oil
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar or sucanat
1/4 cup white or apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup dried minced onions
Instructions
Combine the ground beef, oats, milk, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. I use my hands to do this. Mix till just combined-don't overmix or your meatballs will be tough!
Use a tablespoon or a tablespoon-sized scoop to measure out portions of the meatball mixture, then carefully roll into balls. Fill the bottom of a 10-12 inch skillet with canola oil and heat over medium until a little bit of flour dropped into the pan sizzles. Roll the meatballs in the flour and brown on all sides (it helps to do this in two or three batches so you don't crowd the pan, which will bring down the temperature of the oil), then remove to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.
Combine the ketchup, sugar/sucanat, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and minced onion in a medium bowl. Pour 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a 4-quart slow cooker. Stack the meatballs into the slow cooker, then cover with the remaining sauce. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours (I usually cook them on high). Serve by themselves, with egg noodles or mashed potatoes, or on slider rolls (which is what I did!).
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https://chattavore.com/slow-cooker-bbq-meatballs/

Slow Cooker Maple-Chipotle Brisket

September 19, 2016

This slow cooker maple-chipotle brisket comes together so easily and is absolutely delicious. It makes great leftovers, too!

I’ve been making so many things using the pressure cook function on my Instant Pot that I have neglected the slow cook function. Philip even bought me a special slow cooker lid for the Instant Pot. I have had it for two or three months and, until last week, hadn’t used it! It’s just that I am not one to get up one second earlier than absolutely necessary, so it’s easier to throw things into a pressure cooker after I get home than it is to throw them into a slow cooker before I leave in the morning.

In the grand scheme of things, there are still a lot more people out there who have slow cookers than Instant Pots, so when I was considering how to cook this brisket I decided to go for the slow cooker function on the Instant Pot (I’m still debating whether to keep my slow cooker or get rid of it to make space).

The original plan for this brisket was for it to be…well, not a brisket. I was actually planning to make a maple-chipotle chuck roast and turn it into pot roast nachos a la The Terminal. There was no chuck roast at Publix, though, so I grabbed a brisket instead. It’s difficult to turn down brisket, no?

The pot roast nachos at The Terminal are made with maple-chipotle pot roast. Maple-chipotle brisket definitely sounded like something that I could get behind. I was not incorrect. We bought a small brisket (about 1 1/2 pounds) and it was enough for the two of us for one meal, nachos, and a snack using the leftover queso and brisket. It was absolutely delicious, too. You can adjust the heat level by adding or subtraction chipotles. Two is the magic number for me (I’m sure Philip would be happy with more).

Slow cooker maple-chipotle brisket is easy and so tasty!

Recommended for this recipe:

Mary

Yield: 6-8 servings
Slow Cooker Maple-Chipotle Brisket
10 minPrep Time:
8 hrCook Time:
8 hr, 10 Total Time:

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Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 3-pound brisket
salt and pepper
2-4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 medium yellow or white onion
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 cups water
Instructions
Preheat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. If needed, cut the brisket so that it will fit into the skillet. Do not remove the fat cap! Sprinkle both sides of the meat with salt and pepper. Brown for 2-3 minutes per side. Place into slow cooker. (If using an Instant Pot, just complete this step using the sauté function on the Instant Pot).
In a food processor or blender, puree the peppers, onion, maple syrup, and water. Pour over the brisket. Slow cook on the low setting for 8-10 hours. Remove from the slow cooker and slice against the grain.
To store leftovers, place them into a storage container with the juices from the slow cooker and refrigerate.
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https://chattavore.com/slow-cooker-maple-chipotle-brisket/

Slow Cooker Chili Cheese Dip

September 16, 2016

I received free products from Red Gold Tomatoes in exchange for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

Slow cooker chili cheese dip is so easy to make and it’s sure to be a crowd pleaser. The ingredients are simple and it’s super tasty!

Recently, Red Gold Tomatoes emailed me about a possible television appearance. Sadly, that didn’t work out, but I was pretty excited when I heard back from them about receiving some of their products in exchange for featuring them in some slow cooker recipes here on Chattavore. ~~The great news for you is that Red Gold Tomatoes is currently giving away 2 Crock-Pots a day! Go here to register: http://www.facebook.com/RedGold/app_849555841737112~~

The canned tomatoes couldn’t have come at a better time. Fall is a perfect time to pull out the slow cooker for long-simmered soups, stews, etc., etc…..but honestly, I can’t think of anything better to make in the Crock-Pot than a great dip. For most, football season provides the perfect excuse for snacking and dipping, but I’ll be perfectly honest with you: I don’t need an excuse for snacking or dipping. Dips are one of my favorite things to eat and I’m always happy to make a dip and call it dinner, which is exactly what happened here.

I didn’t admit this to you guys before, but when I wrote my Top Ten Game Day Recipes post I didn’t fess up to what my favorite game day snack is. While I do love a good Buffalo chicken dip (far and away the favorite of my Facebook followers), cheese dip is the one that I can’t resist. Whether it’s cheese fondue, spicy tomato and cheese dip made with Velveeta (yup, gotta love some Velveeta, though I will forever be emotionally scarred by the time I ate some soup with Velveeta in it and broke out in terrible hives), or the creamy white queso dip served at Mexican restaurants, if it’s cheesy and I can dip a chip (or pretzel, cracker, or raw vegetable) in it I’m all over it. I routinely go to a Mexican restaurant that isn’t my favorite Mexican restaurant because I find their cheese dip more irresistible than what is served at my actual favorite. Am I weird?

My slow cooker chili cheese dip is simple, quick, and substantial and made from scratch! Seasoned ground beef, homemade cheese sauce, and Red Gold tomatoes with chilies make a perfect snack or a lazy weeknight dinner. I cooked the ground beef the night before, whisked up the cheese sauce when I got home, and let everything mingle in the slow cooker while I got my treadmill on. Nothing easier!