Pizza Soup
19 March 2019 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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gluten_freeI love my crockpot(s). Since jesse_the_k thought my pizza soup recipe sounded intriguing I'll give it a post.
When I was working 40-50 hours a week and my husband was working 50-60 hours we wanted lots of warm and tasty, ready to eat food when we arrived home and a slow cooker was the perfect answer. With two hours of commute time added to an 8 hour day I had little energy for lengthy preparation and we were hungry 'now' so our slow cooker was simmering away weekly and frequently twice a week. At one point the internet was all about pizza soup and that sounded great to me as I've been gluten free since 2000. I can't tell you which website the original recipe came from but I did some substantial tweaking along the way to this variation which pleases my family greatly. I would prepare the onion, mushroom and pepperoni the night before and store the insert in the fridge. All I needed to do the next morning was slide it into the metal base, pour in the jar of sauce and add the jar of water before turning it on to low and walking out the door.
These are directions for a 5 quart slow cooker. This provides two meals for hubby and me (yeah leftovers!) or one for two adults and a teen aged boy. If you're feeding 4 or 5 people it makes a hearty entree and you could serve with tossed salad and even a gluten free roll instead of the crackers.
Ingredients (check your labels diligently on commercial items since the recipe can change to include wheat/gluten without a noticeable change to the packaging):
Yellow onions (or white if you prefer)
Mushrooms; button or cremini
Packaged sliced pepperoni (I like 3-4 ounces of Hormel original)
Salt
Tomato-based spaghetti sauce (I'm currently using 24 ounce jars of Prego Italian Sauce)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Peel, quarter and slice enough onions to fill the ceramic insert halfway. I cut the quartered onions into roughly 1/4 or 3/8 inch slices and break them apart gently while putting them into the insert. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Continue filling with 1/2 inch wide sliced mushrooms to an inch below the top of the insert. Stack pepperoni slices and cut in half. Separate slices so they are not clumped together and begin mixing into the onions and mushrooms with your clean, bare hands. You want the pepperoni, onions and mushrooms to be distributed evenly in the insert. Shake insert gently to settle the ingredients and then pour in the jar of sauce. Refill the jar with warmish water and pour into the insert. Use caution because you may not need all the water as you want the water level just below the surface of the veggie/meat mixture. It's fine if it doesn't quite get that high. Set the slow cooker to low and walk away.
This was delicious 10-12 hours later. To serve, pile mozzarella (1/3 cup?) in a deep bowl and ladle in several scoops of soup. Stir your soup in its bowl and then you'll have lovely strings of melted cheese as you spoon it up. If you really miss the crunchy crust you can provide a bowl of japanese rice crackers along with.
I buy and slice the mushrooms myself so they are substantial enough to be seen when cooked and take advantage of the price differential but pre-sliced ones would work. You can certainly add other things like olives or bell pepper slices and substitute another meat but this is designed to be properly seasoned and appealing to the taste buds with this composition so tweak carefully. Plain chicken or ground beef would require additional spices and flavoring. If you reduce the onions substantially or omit them altogether the soup would probably become broth-like without their bulk. Our one experiment with cream-based sauce was a failure, not unexpected since slow cookers and dairy are frequently temperamental so I only use tomato-based sauces.
I hope you enjoy and let us know about any successful tweaks.
Tabs
jesse_the_k thought my pizza soup recipe sounded intriguing I'll give it a post. When I was working 40-50 hours a week and my husband was working 50-60 hours we wanted lots of warm and tasty, ready to eat food when we arrived home and a slow cooker was the perfect answer. With two hours of commute time added to an 8 hour day I had little energy for lengthy preparation and we were hungry 'now' so our slow cooker was simmering away weekly and frequently twice a week. At one point the internet was all about pizza soup and that sounded great to me as I've been gluten free since 2000. I can't tell you which website the original recipe came from but I did some substantial tweaking along the way to this variation which pleases my family greatly. I would prepare the onion, mushroom and pepperoni the night before and store the insert in the fridge. All I needed to do the next morning was slide it into the metal base, pour in the jar of sauce and add the jar of water before turning it on to low and walking out the door.
These are directions for a 5 quart slow cooker. This provides two meals for hubby and me (yeah leftovers!) or one for two adults and a teen aged boy. If you're feeding 4 or 5 people it makes a hearty entree and you could serve with tossed salad and even a gluten free roll instead of the crackers.
Ingredients (check your labels diligently on commercial items since the recipe can change to include wheat/gluten without a noticeable change to the packaging):
Yellow onions (or white if you prefer)
Mushrooms; button or cremini
Packaged sliced pepperoni (I like 3-4 ounces of Hormel original)
Salt
Tomato-based spaghetti sauce (I'm currently using 24 ounce jars of Prego Italian Sauce)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Peel, quarter and slice enough onions to fill the ceramic insert halfway. I cut the quartered onions into roughly 1/4 or 3/8 inch slices and break them apart gently while putting them into the insert. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Continue filling with 1/2 inch wide sliced mushrooms to an inch below the top of the insert. Stack pepperoni slices and cut in half. Separate slices so they are not clumped together and begin mixing into the onions and mushrooms with your clean, bare hands. You want the pepperoni, onions and mushrooms to be distributed evenly in the insert. Shake insert gently to settle the ingredients and then pour in the jar of sauce. Refill the jar with warmish water and pour into the insert. Use caution because you may not need all the water as you want the water level just below the surface of the veggie/meat mixture. It's fine if it doesn't quite get that high. Set the slow cooker to low and walk away.
This was delicious 10-12 hours later. To serve, pile mozzarella (1/3 cup?) in a deep bowl and ladle in several scoops of soup. Stir your soup in its bowl and then you'll have lovely strings of melted cheese as you spoon it up. If you really miss the crunchy crust you can provide a bowl of japanese rice crackers along with.
I buy and slice the mushrooms myself so they are substantial enough to be seen when cooked and take advantage of the price differential but pre-sliced ones would work. You can certainly add other things like olives or bell pepper slices and substitute another meat but this is designed to be properly seasoned and appealing to the taste buds with this composition so tweak carefully. Plain chicken or ground beef would require additional spices and flavoring. If you reduce the onions substantially or omit them altogether the soup would probably become broth-like without their bulk. Our one experiment with cream-based sauce was a failure, not unexpected since slow cookers and dairy are frequently temperamental so I only use tomato-based sauces.
I hope you enjoy and let us know about any successful tweaks.
Tabs
no subject
Date: 2019-03-19 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-20 12:40 am (UTC)I know nothing about crockpots. Do the onions cook down and thicken the broth, or do you just mean they take up a lot of space in the soup?
Onions required
Date: 2019-03-20 01:29 am (UTC)The onions do not cook down and dissolve/disappear. But if you don't include them there is nothing but watered sauce with little bits of mushroom next to the pepperoni slices. We like our soup to have some body.
Having said that, you can eventually cook onions to the point they disintegrate but that takes longer than you're cooking this soup.
Re: Onions required
Date: 2019-03-20 01:54 am (UTC)Thanks for explaining, and for sharing your recipe!
no subject
Date: 2019-03-20 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-20 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-20 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-20 07:16 pm (UTC)(No room on the counter for a crockpot. Hmm. Will pass to crockpot having friends.)
alternative means of cooking
Date: 2019-03-20 07:27 pm (UTC)*wink* *wink*
no subject
Date: 2019-03-21 03:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-05 01:37 am (UTC)