Cooking Comfort

Home cooked soups and stews are the ultimate comfort food especially when the weather outside is cool and damp. I particularly like making soup because  it allows me to be creative with whatever ingredients are on hand. Yesterday I needed to empty the fridge of leftovers, so out came my favourite crock pot. I love this crock pot because of its shape (tall and thin) and it doesn’t overheat or overcook food, and it was a gift from a very special person.

After doing the breakfast dishes, I put the following leftovers into the crock pot :

1 cup steamed cauliflower florets

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 carrot chopped

1 leek chopped

1 handful of chopped spinach

1/2 pint stewed tomatoes

1/2 a  yellow onion, peeled and chopped

1 not-quite-full quart of chicken stock

To this I added 1 quart of water, and 3 small russet potatoes cubed.

I turned the crock pot on high for the first hour, then let it cook the rest of the day on low.

About 1 hour before supper, I added 1 leftover chicken-turkey sausage, sliced. I tasted the soup at this point and decided it needed a dash of Kosher salt. Perfect!

What a comforting meal to end a busy, blustery day. Nutritious and delicious.

This made about 2 quarts of soup, enough for two generous servings (and more leftovers).

Note: For vegetarians: use vegetable stock, omit the sausage.