Today I got very domestic. I always have great intentions to make meals in advance on Sundays so that I have less work to do during the weekdays, but this rarely ever happens. On a rainy day like today, it made perfect sense. I knew that we had a lot of frozen vegetables that have been in our freezer for months and really needed to be cooked…so I decided to make a big crock pot vegetable-bean soup. As I started to to search the freezer, I discovered that 5 of the bags were actually broccoli! Broccoli doesn’t do great in a crock pot for hours as it turns into a mush, so the whole “clean the freezer out by making a big crock pot soup idea” went out the window. I did grab one bag of spinach from the freezer. Not sure why I had frozen spinach though? Farmer John must have bought it.
So here’s the recipe of what I threw together, and I must say it’s quite tasty!
Yellow Zucchini, White Bean, Spinach and Pesto Soup
- 2 yellow zucchinis diced (bought at the local farmer’s market)
- 1 medium onion chopped and sauteed in olive oil
- 1 can diced tomato with herbs
- 1 can tomato paste
- a few cups of organic chicken stock (didn’t measure)
- 1 can cannellini beans
- 1 16 oz bag of spinach
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 2 pesto cubes (from freezer, saved from last summer)
- 1 tsp salt
- pepper to taste
(just about any vegetables or herbs could be added to this, but this is what I had on hand)
I turned the crock pot on high around 2:00 and it was done by 6:00. I ate some and put the rest in containers to be frozen for later.
Farmer John will enjoy these for dinners when I am away in Alaska!
