Basic Slowcooker Bean and Sausage Soup

Original Recipe HERE

This soup was good.  Nothing fancy, but it was tasty and filled us up, plus made leftovers.  It offers a lot of room for improvisation...also known as, "I have these vegetables in my fridge that are going to go bad in the next 24 hours and I need to use them up."  I used frozen peas, frozen corn, celery, and green onions.  I thought I had carrots, but Husband had taken the rest of them to work.  Darn him for brown-bagging healthy lunches.

Ingredients

1 can white kidney beans, drained & rinsed

1 can pinto beans, drained & rinsed

1 can garbanzo beans, drained & rinsed

1 teaspoon dried or ground thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried minced garlic (approximate)

2-4 chicken or turkey sausages

1/2 chopped yellow onion

1/2 cup leftover rice (or about 1/3 cup uncooked rice)

2 cups chopped fresh vegetables

1 quart chicken or vegetable broth

Directions

1) Chop vegetables into bite-size pieces.

2) Slice sausage length-wise and then length-wise again, followed by slicing into smaller pieces (so you have quarter-rounds).

3) Add all ingredients to slowcooker.

4) 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.

Notes: None, other than to try different types of vegetables next time, as well as another type of sausage, just to see how it turns out.

Kid Participation:

* Drain beans.

* Dump ingredients into slowcooke.r

* Throw bean cans into recycling bin but miss, forcing Mom to walk out into the rain to pick up the cans and lids strewn on the patio.