I'm giving this 5 stars because of the 4.5-star taste and the 5-star simplicity! I did add a can of beef broth and a bit of garlic. Unbelievably good for the effort involved! I don't understand the other reviewers who change a recipe completely and then give negative reviews. Frozen vegetables will NOT be as good as canned (the soup will be watery and bland) so please try the recipe as written first! :-)
People.. this recipe works! I didn't add the canned veggies @ first did add the liquid though. The veggies themselves didn't get added until 2 hours into cooking.
My husband loves this soup! I did add a can of beef broth and just a little water, other than that, the perfect vegetable soup. I was worried about the can vegetables, but you couldn't tell at all.
I'm trying to use my crock pot for things other than chicken so I came across this recipe. I made a few changes though based on what I had on hand- I tossed in some baby carrots instead of from the can and also sliced up some potatoes instead of from the can too. My husband and 3 year old thought this was great! And it heated up well for my lunch the bext day too! This is an extremely easy recipe- I love being able to just "toss" it into the slow cooker and not have to precook anything! This is my kind of recipe- thanks for posting it!
Couldn't be any easier dump it all in the crock-pot and go. No chopping measuring etc. I like that part! But as far as taste its overwhelmingly and I mean overwhelmingly tomatoes...and therefor VERY acidic even after cooking all night! I was skeptical about using canned veggies b/c I always use fresh or frozen but they were just fine. The recipe has so much potential I think if I tweek it a little bit with less tomatoes maybe a little wine and some more beef it would easily be 5 star. I like the idea from another reviewer to add a little bit of cooked pasta shells at the end. Will try again. PS-Get your bread maker going timed to finish at the same time and everyone will think you are superwoman...homeade soup and fresh hot bread!!!
1st time making this recipe and I took Islandgirl's suggestion for extra veggies bouillon and onion soup mix. But to kick it up the proverbial notch I added Chipotle Tabasco. Awesome! In a 16 oz cup I put two bouillon cubes 1 1/2 packets of onion soup mix about 3 tablespoons of Chipotle Tobasco (20 shakes of the bottle) and filled the rest of the glass with water. Dump that mixture in and it gives it a very nice flavor; mildly spiced and a little smokey.
I used frozen vegetables and it was fabulous! I didn't have the canned veggies on hand, just the frozen mix. I was worried because of the reviews saying not to use frozen. I took into account the reviews saying there was too much of a tomato taste. Here's what I did, (and keep in mind it's mainly because I just used what I had on hand) 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, I cut up 7 small red potatoes in very little pieces because they needed to be used, I also cut up one roma tomato for the same reason, 2 cans of beef broth to keep from getting the watered down taste from the frozen veggies, and 1 can of tomato soup. Everything else I did as directed. I added 1 can of broth first and then waited to see if I needed anymore liquid. About 4 hrs. in I added the second can and the soup to make it more soupy. Hope this helps someone that only has frozen vegetables on hand!
If you don't like a lot of tomato flavor you might want to try a smaller can of crushed tomatos. Otherwise excellent!
We've cooked this several times, and love it! I use canned lima beans instead of green beans and use two cans of sliced or whole potatoes instead of one.
I keep a supply of canned foods mostly low or no added sodium on hand as an emergency food supply. They do need to be rotated so occasionally I need to make dishes using canned veggies. This is a pretty good way to use some of them. Since I am a vegetarian of course I didn't add the beef but instead used a very rich brown veggie stock. My lower rating is for a lack of flavour. Adding a few herbs and spices would really perk this up a lot. Still it's a good basic recipe for tweakers.
