As I mentioned in the first “Tasty Tuesdays” post of November, I’m going to be busy with NaNoWriMo, so I’m going back to the past for inspiration when it comes to these posts. In the previous “Tasty Tuesdays” post, I featured my first such post — one that was originally published back in 2014. For this second throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” post, I’m going to feature one that was first published in my LiveJournal on 22 December 2015. Here is that post in its entirety:
12/22/15
Food for a “winter picnic”
location: In my office
mood: goofy
Last week, I had made arrangements to get together with a family member, and it wasn’t too long before the topic of food arose. Tired of the usual fast food, I decided to indulge my love of picnics — even though it was almost winter!
So I promptly did some research (Thanks, Google!) to find out what kind of food would be appropriate for a “winter picnic” — and what wasn’t. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I needed to serve something hot. The trouble was I don’t have a Thermos, something most of the sites I visited recommended for serving hot food. Well… I decided to go for what I thought was the next best thing: a Crock Pot, especially since the one I’ve got has a locking lid AND my vehicle has an electrical outlet in it!
Once I’d decided to use a Crock Pot to keep the food warm, I then searched for an appropriate recipe. First, I checked my cookbook collection, but didn’t find anything that I though my picnic companion would like. At that point, I did another Google search. Thankfully, I found quite a few potential recipes, so the next step was to narrow down the choices. To do this, I looked at the lists of ingredients and selected the one for which I had virtually all of the ingredients in the pantry. And this recipe was…
Wait for it…
Betty Crocker’s Slow-Cooker Vegetable Minestrone!
Without further ado, here is this week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe:
Ingredients
4 cups vegetable broth (which I used) or Progresso chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)
4 cups tomato juice
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 medium carrots, sliced (1 cup)
2 medium celery stalks, chopped (1 cup)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (3 oz)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 can (28 oz) Muir Glen organic diced tomatoes, undrained (I used 2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes that I already had in the pantry.)
1 1/2 cups uncooked rotini pasta (4 1/2 oz)
Shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired
Directions
- In 4- to 5-quart slow cooker, mix all ingredients except pasta and cheese.
- Cover; cook on Low heat setting 7 to 8 hours.
- Stir in pasta. Increase heat setting to High; cover and cook 15 to 20 minutes longer or until pasta is tender. Sprinkle each serving with cheese.
Note: This recipe was tested in slow cookers with heating elements in the side and bottom of the cooker, not in cookers that stand only on a heated base. For slow cookers with just a heated base, follow the manufacturer’s directions for layering ingredients and choosing a temperature.
My Notes:
Although I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of slow cooker I’ve got, I just dumped in all of the ingredients (except the pasta and cheese, as directed) and mixed ’em all up rather than digging out the manufacturer’s instructions to figure out how to layer the ingredients.
As I was typing this post, I realized that I forgot to bring the cheese with me when I left the house, so I couldn’t “sprinkle each serving with cheese”. Good thing the cheese was “if desired”!
Regarding the pasta… I followed the directions by stirring in the pasta, increasing the heat setting and cooking for an additional 15 to 20 minutes longer. Had I been serving the soup right away, these instructions would have been fine. The trouble was I ended up not being able to serve the soup until almost six hours later!
At the end of the additional cooking time, I set my slow cooker to “Warm”, loaded it into my vehicle, picked up my picnic companions and finally arrived at a suitable park. When I took off the lid to unveil the main course of our picnic, I was dismayed to find that my Vegetable Minestrone looked more like a stew than the soup I was expecting to see! The pasta had absorbed most of the liquid, leaving very fat spirals and chunks of vegetables. It still tasted fine, but… The next time I make it (especially for a picnic), I’m going to pre-cook the pasta before I leave, pack it in a separate container, and then add it to the soup just before serving. I’m pretty sure that should alleviate the “very fat spirals” problem I encountered the first time I made this recipe.
In addition to the Vegetable Minestrone, I served grilled cheese san’iches (wrapped in foil to keep ’em warm), fresh fruit (apples and pears) with a caramel dip (Pears and caramel = an awesome combination!), and some frosted sugar cookies since we were getting together to do some holiday shopping. I’m please to report that my picnic companions enjoyed the food that was served. The only trouble was the weather… It’s hard to enjoy the food when there’s a cold wind blowing!!
As always, I’d love to hear how this “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe turned out for you. Please take a moment to leave me a comment about your experience with this recipe — or even a similar one, for that matter.
I hope that you’re enjoying these throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” recipes! Looking forward to hearing what you think about (1) my idea of going back to the past for inspiration and (2) this particular recipe, so please leave me a comment below.
