3 Bean Mexican Crock Pot POLAR VORTEX SOUP heats up the home!

   

3 Bean Mexican Crock Pot
 POLAR VORTEX SOUP
heats up the home!

You can sub things in this recipe and it will still work
as long as you stick to the same measurements and ethnicity
For instance I used pork breakfast sausage  I just had to roll it into little balls and brown it first. But I could also use ham. 12 ounces  is 12 ounces  unless you want it really meaty. Go for 16 ounces then.

 The Recipe

12 ounces pork sausage

2 fourteen ounce cans reduced sodium chicken or beef broth

1 fifteen ounce can of black beans rinsed and drained

1 fifteen ounce can of garbanzo beans rinsed and drained

1 eight ounce can of lima beans

2 tablespoons of Trader Joes Chipolte Sauce

1 cup of   frozen broccoli or any frozen vegetable

1 cup of diced sweet potatoes 

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon organic oregano 

1/2  teaspoon smoked paprika

Brown spices in a fry pan with some oil / Do not let the spices smoke / put spices to the side

 Brown the sausage in the same pan after removing spices to  cool/ drain  the fat

 Put spices and browned sausage in the crock pot. If you are using ham or other meat make sure it has been partially cooked

Stir in the soup broth black beans, garbanzo beans , lima beans or any other beans you want to use Rinsed and drained .

If you use canned  pork and beans (keep the sauce for pork and beans)

Add the potatoes (you can use frozen hash browns) 

Add the frozen vegetables or you can use stewed tomatoes and one  1/2 cup of  chopped green or red bell pepper . Frozen corn is very Mexican/ whereas frozen okra would be African. In any case KEEP the oregano and if you want less smoky taste use chili powder  which is a little hot. You can sub sriracha for the chili powder still using 1/2 teaspoon.

Finally... Cover your crockpot creation and cook on low setting for 4-5 hours . This is how the flavors blend by simmering at this rate of  209 degrees  and ending around 340 degrees after  4-5 hours. It is not boiling !!!.

If you have no crockpot and are cooking on the stove top you are still following the 209 - 340 degrees. So yes you need a cooking thermometer.And yes the meat needs to  be browned/partially cooked first. 

For this soup  it will eventually bubble at this temperature. It is not a true boil at 340 degrees Farenheit/100 Celcius.  

However you will have to often stir a stove top pot at this temperature so that nothing burns at the bottom of the pan. 

There is one advantage to the stove top- the house will heat up and smell good for about 4 to 5 hours . There is no high setting for stove top cooking  it is meant to simmer -- not boil. 

In a crock pot leave the lid on and let it cool down enough so you can transfer it to a container that will withstand refrigeration . With a stove top method, you are simply putting a cooler pot into the fridge.