Making Vegetable Soup from Leftovers in the Crockpot

I love my crock pot and I've done some interesting things with it.  I made pulled pork in it and it turned out simply scrumptious.  Then I made my easy no stuffed cabbage in it and that was even better.  I'm getting the hang of cooking in larger quantities again.

Crock Pot Stuffed Cabbage

I still had the juice from the stuffed cabbage along with a good portion of the cabbage that had not been cooked.  So!!!!!!!  Into the crock pot with the juice and some water to break it down and chopped up cabbage.

I didn't have any frozen leftover vegetables or meat from my meals to put in it so off to the store I went to buy a large bag of mixed soup vegetables and some stewing cubes.  Once home I chopped the meat cubes into smaller pieces, seasoned them and precooked them.  Once they were browned, I put them into the crock pot with the cabbage pieces and the tomato stock.

Our frozen section has the best vegetable blend for vegetable soup.  It even has okra in it along with all kinds of beans and the normal carrots, etc.  I dumped the vegetables into the pot and stirred it all up.

I cooked it on high until the vegetables had cooked through and then set the crock pot down to low and left it cook most of the day.

My granddaughter tried it and asked me if I had used a recipe for the soup after she had downed two bowls.  I was so proud to say, no it's my own recipe, even if I cheated somewhat by using the frozen soup vegetables.

When my children were small, I used my mother's recipe and saved all the vegetables that had been used for meals (including the cabbage from ham and cabbage) in a container until I was ready to make soup.  She made her own stock by bringing the chuck roast along with the bone to a boil and then simmering the whole day.  Once it was ready she chopped up the the chuck and added the frozen vegetables that she had been hoarding for the occasion.  The only thing she added which was my favorite part of the soup was a can of butter beans.  For some reason those butter beans made the whole soup for me.

Right now it is possible to take vegetables straight from the garden for your soup.  My neighbor has half her garden done in vegetable and they would fill the soup pot down to the string beans.

This recipe goes well with my No Frills Meatloaf because I don't have to make any potatoes that day and the soup is filling along with the meatloaf.

So now I can cheat and use the crock pot to make my soup even using her recipe instead of my shortcut that I used yesterday.