CrockPot White Bean and Sausage Soup

Day 146.

We went from a hundred million degrees to freezing in the course of about 4 days. Weird.

I get cold easily, and really felt like some soup. I'm making my way through the garbanzo bean surplus and threw together a soup with what we had on hand.

The Ingredients.

--1 can white kidney beans

--1 can pinto beans (I guess these aren't really white)

--1 can garbanzo beans

--1 t thyme

--2-4 spicy chicken or turkey sausage

--1/2 chopped yellow onion

--1/2 cup leftover rice pilaf (if you want to use raw rice, you should have enough liquid to add 1/4 to 1/3 cup without losing soupiness)

--2 cups chopped fresh vegetables (I had broccoli, carrots, asparagus)

--1 quart chicken or vegetable broth

The Directions.

Drain your beans (I didn't rinse, for no reason other than sheer laziness) and throw them into your crock. Chop up whatever vegetables you are going to use in tiny pieces. I used my Pampered Chef handy dandy chopper. Slice the sausage that you are going to use. I chose to use two spicy turkey sausage---if you would like your soup to have a kick, use more than two. Two just kind of gives flavor without spice.

Cook on low for 6-9 hours, or on high for 4-5. The soup is done when it's heated through and the vegetables are tender, but it's not going to hurt anything to cook it longer and give the flavors more time to meld.

The Verdict.

This was super easy to throw together, because I had everything on hand. I am usually tempted to throw tomatoes into soup, and was glad that I refrained this time. The broth was mellow and wasn't too spicy for the kids. I served it with shredded Parmesan cheese on top.