How to Make Easy Crock Pot Soup (8 Steps)

Making soup in a Crock Pot is similar to painting on a white canvas; you can put anything inside of the pot that you come up with. The result, however, is not always a masterpiece, but with Crock Pot soups, as long as you follow timing schedules of when to add what type of ingredient to avoid over-cooking and mush, virtually no soup can go wrong. Soups can contain beans, rice, noodles, potatoes or a combination. A basic soup contains a broth, stock and seasonings, after which meats and vegetables can be added depending on your taste, type of soup and available ingredients.

Things You'll Need

Beans
Stock
Noodles
Rice

Chicken or meat
Vegetables
Seasoning

Instructions

Soak any variety of beans overnight and add to the Crock Pot in one possible variation of an easy soup. Beans add both bulk and protein to a soup and require little effort to prepare. Soak any desired beans -- black, kidney, pinto, white, black-eyed peas or chickpeas -- in water overnight and add to the Crock Pot in the morning.
Dice onions and garlic and add to the beans. Onions and garlic are universal soup ingredients and can be added to any variety of soup. Cover the beans and onions with stock of any kind including vegetable, chicken or beef, or simply add water. Use between 4 and 6 cups of broth or water as liquid evaporates during the slow cooking process. For a tomato-based soup, add one to two cans crushed tomatoes.
Season with spices and/or peppers. The type of seasoning you use will determine the flavor of your soup. Add salt and pepper as a base, followed by other spices such as basil, oregano, bay, rosemary, cumin, coriander or chili powder according to your taste. Add hot red peppers if desired.
Add meats or poultry. Add any type of meat -- chicken, sausage, ground beef or bacon, to name a few -- to match the spices in the soup. Add the meat raw before cooking or precook in a separate pan and add later along with the vegetables.
Cook on low for about 5 to 6 hours or until the beans are tender and the meat is cooked through.
Chop vegetables and add to the Crock Pot. You can add virtually any vegetable to a Crock Pot soup, including carrots, peas, corn, lima beans, green beans, squash, bell peppers, celery and fresh tomatoes. Chop everything into bite-size pieces and add to the pot. If you precook the chicken, sausage, beef or pork, add it with the vegetables.
Cook for an additional 1 to 2 hours or until the vegetables are tender.
Stir in noodles or cooked rice. The final possible addition to an easy Crock Pot soup is noodles or cooked rice at the end. Add noodles only during the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking or else they will overcook and become soggy.

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