there's a theme

Crock pot meals tend to be fairly two dimensional: either cook a giant slab of meat for hours, or cook a liquidy stew (with or without meat) for hours.  I wish the recipes below were a departure from those choices!  Still, if you've never tried any of these ideas, they may seem like a refreshing change.  I do hope that's the case.  Or maybe, like me, one of these recipes reminds you that you haven't made it in a while, which also inspires a refreshing change.

Here's a list of the types of things I cook in the crock pot on fast days.  I usually don't follow any recipes since I've made these meals for almost two decades (!), but I've written a loose set of directions for each.

vegan chili

        -Sauté onions, peppers, garlic, and squash.  Add chili powder, cumin and oregano until fragrant.  Dump everything into the crock pot.  Add cans of crushed tomatoes and a variety of beans (chickpea, kidney, navy, black).  Cook on high until dinner time.  Sometimes I add ground walnuts and a bit of nutritional yeast to keep it from getting too sweet. Serve with sliced avocado, chopped cilantro, corn chips or cornbread.

vegetable soup 

        -Dump chopped veggies into crockpot with a can of tomato sauce and lots of water. Blast on high until soft.  My veggie stand-bys are onion, celery, carrot, green bean, potato, and occasionally cabbage or cauliflower.  I usually season with Italian-type herbs: basil, oregano, thyme, garlic.  A bunch of chopped Italian parsley added before serving keeps it nice and bright.  Serve with bread.

lentil soup

         -Same as above...ish.  Cook lentils on high until soft.  Around lunchtime, add celery, carrot and onion.  Cook for a while and add a can of crushed tomatoes.  Season with dill, lemon juice/red wine vinegar.  Serve with bread or pita.

16 bean soup

        -Same as above, just more varieties of beans.  Season with paprika instead of dill.

black bean soup 

        -Same as above.  Ha.  Season with cumin, oregano, and chili powder.  Use Ro-Tel instead of plain tomatoes, and use the immersion blender to purée.  Serve with avocado, chips or cornbread.

revithia (served with rice)

        -Soak dried chickpeas overnight.  Drain and cook in crockpot on high with carrot, onion, celery, and garlic until all are soft.  Drain some of the water and replace liquid with crushed tomatoes.  Cook until a little before dinner, and add fresh or frozen spinach.  When the spinach wilts, serve over rice with vegan parmesan.  (This also tastes delicious with a generous sprinkle of feta and glug of EVOO when not fasting.)

Southern soup beans (served with cornbread)

    -Same as 16 bean soup, although with pintos. I mash some of the beans, but keep most of them whole.  Serve over Southern style cornbread made without any sugar.

Georgian red bean and walnut soup (Lobiani)

    -This is a recipe adapted from Please to the Table, in which is an excess of varied recipes.  Soak 1 pound of red beans overnight, drain and pop into crock pot with lots of water.  You can add Better Than Bouillon now or later.  It doesn't matter too much.  Cook until soft, and then blitz to a chunky purée.  Sauté two onions until golden and add to soup.  Just before serving, stir in 1/2 c. ground walnuts, 2 t. coriander seeds, 3 crushed cloves garlic, and 1/4 c. tarragon vinegar. Let stand a few minutes, sprinkle generously with fresh chopped cilantro and Italian parsley.

All beans, right?  If you're looking for a little more variety, there are a wealth of non-bean recipes in the cookbooks pictured above.  The hummus recipe in Jerusalem is our new favorite favorite.  It's so good.  (But beans again!)