50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker

by Lynn Alley

Lynn Alley is the queen of the slow cooker, with three hugely successful books on the subject.

Lynn Alley, author of The Gourmet Slow Cooker , is famous for creating flavorful homemade meals using the kitchen's most coveted countertop appliance--the slow cooker. Inside 50 Simple Soups for the Slow Cooker , Alley presents bold combinations for 50 new vegetarian and vegan soup dishes that are as hearty as they are flavorful. A few classics such as Ribollita and French Onion mingle with many unique offerings, including Swedish Rhubarb Raspberry Soup, Garnet Yam Soup with Coconut Cream, and Eggplant Soup with Cumin, Yogurt, and Dill.

There are 15 mouthwatering photographs of steamy, slow cooked, spoon-to-mouth goodness. A concealed wire-o format ensures ease of use with lay-flat binding and effortless page turns, while the book's 6 1/2 by 6 1/2-inch trim size makes it a handy resource in the kitchen as well as a perfect gift for on-the-go families.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Ebooks, Adult

104 pages, Spiral-bound

First published September 27, 2011

About the author

Lynn Alley began her career as a cooking teacher at a middle school, where she and her students gained fame for selling handmade, gourmet items at Neiman Marcus. Since then, she has taught the art of cooking throughout the United States and France. Lynn has written for the San Diego Union Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Fine Cooking, and many other publications.

Reviews

[Andria Potter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally don't read nonfiction but this was for a family member and he said most of the soups are ones he had no interest in so I'm giving this three stars between us both. 3.5 actual rating. Some soups were good, such as a few of the mushroom ones (I don't remember the names sorry!) And also this book does NOT format well on kindle.

[Mo Coghlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good simple cookbook for vegetarian and vegan soups. Everything is really easy to prepare and has good flavor. I made the Kashmiri Black Bean Soup, Cabbage Dal with Chile and Toasted Coconut, Korean-Style Black Bean Soup, Potato Broccoli & Cheese Soup, Soupe au Pistou and Tuscan White Bean Soup with Olive Oil and Rosemary. I disagree with the directions to cook bean soups on low, the beans cook more thoroughly on high. And, all the recipes can be modified to cook more quickly in an instant pot (but I would add a bit more water).

[Hafsa Sabira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book. The narrative style is excellent. Most of the recipes include a story about how the writer has learnt it or come across it. The problem I have though,is that most of the recipes include ingredients which are not always available at home. But still the writer has made them look so appealing,I am tempted to go out,buy a few ingredients and try out some recipes. Maybe I will actually try some recipes,instead of just reading. Till then 3 stars it is.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very excited to realize halfway through this book that the recipes were vegetarian! I'm always on the hunt for great vegetarian recipes for my slow cooker, especially since most recipes I find elsewhere rely overmuch on large amounts of meat. While I am okay with the occasional inclusion of meat in my meals, or with adapting recipes to make them vegetarian, it's always a pleasure to find recipes that are vegetarian to start with.

I was also excited to see some rather unexpected flavor combinations in some of these soups; there are only so many variations you can make on a basic minestrone or chili before they get boring, so the inclusion of fruit, or vegetables that I don't use often is always a nice change.

[Katya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars.
I made the Tomato Soup from my Mom’s neighbour’s garden & it turned out well, it was tasty.
I learned a trick about cooking the vegetables: for a couple hours-put them straight into the slow cooker, no oil added, & nothing else, to bring out the flavour more before adding the broth or water.

I’m going to try a couple more recipes, such as Garlic, Onion & Leek Soup w/Cheese.
Unfortunately, a lot of the recipes call for a lot of both cheese & cream.

[Jennifer Brickner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made onion soup and some others. Very easy and tasty.

[Patreesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty pictures and some ideas, but most recipes require more than just a slow cooker to make. Did create some of the soups, with modifications, on a stove -- they were quite good.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very excited to try these out once the cooler, fall days start rolling in! ♡

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something's wrong

There are recipes for 50 soups in this cookbook, and most of them have no photos. This is so even though there are dozens of empty pages, with headers, implying that something should be there . Something is wrong with this publish or they were purposely omitted perhaps? I don't mind them being vegan, in fact, that is what I like best anyway. As someone mentioned, the book seems to be badly formatted to read in Kindle.

[William Mego · Rating 1 out of 5]

At least in the edition on my desk at the moment, it does not mention that all the recipes are vegetarian. Ok, fine. The GR description does mention that, but I had to read quite a few recipes until I reached enough that made a point about substituting a specific meat item for something else before I started to figure it out. A glance at the forward leads to some preachy (and sadly, incorrect) facts about the raising, cooking, and consumption of meat. Ok, a preachy writer, nothing new.

The reason I gave this book a single star is because when you combine the lazy publishing of not mentioning it's not only 50 recipes for slow cooker soup, but that it's also vegetarian (and somewhat militantly so), but the recipes take 'simple' to a new level. The recipes where the author's creativity has been employed are devoted to the odd "We're-making-meatless-food-mmmm-so-good-now-don't-you-hate-meat-too" sort. I'm honestly tired of books that just swap out meat or do some weirdness to TEACH me how wrong I am. There's simply too much good ALREADY meatless food, you seriously don't need to teach or ween me off of meat. Add to this the overly strident and frankly simpleminded claims about the horrors of meat (there ARE responsible livestock farmers, I KNOW some..so I don't want to hear more about it)

So perhaps make a new cookbook, have it be vegetarian, perhaps make it a LITTLE LESS SIMPLE. That would be a much better cookbook, because this books problems overshadow a few solid recipes such as butternut squash and prunes, which looks good!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a cute little spiral bound square cookbook containing slow cooker recipes for 50 vegetarian soups. I liked the format of the cookbook, and the vibrant pictures, but as other reviewers have mentioned, many of the recipes require staples that are not standard to the typical American pantry. However, this would be great if you are looking to branch out beyond your typical flavor palette and aren't afraid to experiment.

[Krista · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's kind of hard to rate a cookbook, without making any of the recipes. But I wasn't really too inspired by the recipes that I saw. They all sounded ok, but not great enough to actually copy down the recipe. I do like that Alley doesn't use stock in her recipes, but was surprised that she neither soaked or cooked her beans before cooking. Whenever I've done that it's been a major disaster. I am excited to say that this was my first digital library book that I've taken out! One minor success.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love to browse through cookbooks and use the ideas and adapt recipes for our family. I found the recipe suggestions for different way to prepare French onion soup and tomato soup intriguing and have noted them to try.

Many of the other recipes also sounded good but many required ingredients I do not normally have around the house. For slow cooker use, I prefer few ingredients that I'm likely to already have in the pantry or freezer. If you shop frequently, this probably wouldn't matter.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little book full of vegan and vegetarian soup recipes, all from the slow cooker. Good assortment of global recipes and some unique flavors. I made the Spanish Potato and Olive Soup and it was really good.

Here's a link to my full review and the recipe / pictures: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...

[Susan B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love my slow cooker, and I love soup (especially in winter), so when I saw this book at my local library, I had to borrow it! Unfortunately, I won't be trying any of the recipes, since most of them call for ingredients I don't commonly use and wouldn't otherwise have occasion to purchase.

[Miki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I found two recipes that looked good, which is more than usual. Why do so many cookbooks feature recipes my family would rather die of starvation than try?? For instance "Creamy Butternut Squash, Mushroom, Prune and Rice Soup". Uh-huh....like that's gonna happen. NOT.

[Deyara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Pretty good, I liked that the recipes were vegetarian so I didnt have to mess with them too much though she does use a heap of parmesan cheese rinds LOL. Recipes are simple, and the ones I have made so far were pretty tasty.

[Sacha Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found 7 recipes that I have to try some day.
Rest of them I didn't like much, or had ingredients that are not available here.
So: overall I'm quite happy, 7 out of 50 recipes is quite a good score!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

see my full review here: http://www.girlichef.com/2011/10/cook...

[Robin Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a surprise! This is a VEGETARIAN cookbook. Wonderful flavorful recipes. Read my review at SAcramento Book Review.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an awesome surprise! Little, unassuming book I grabbed at the library. Packed with really simple yet unusual recipes--about 30 of which I plan to make! Also--totally vegetarian!

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't realize all the recipes were vegetarian. There were quite a few recipes that included ingredients I don't usually have on hand and some are not easy to find in local groceries.