Southwestern Bean Soup

A great cold day soup with many health benefits! Throw it in the crock pot and have a great meal for dinner or "supper" if you're from the Midwest:) I like to saute my veggies in coconut oil or grape seed oil and add spices to give the soup a little extra flavor but this step is not necessary if you don't have the extra few minutes.

Ingredients:

2cups diced carrots

1cup diced celery

1/2 cups diced leeks or onion

1Tbsp of garlic

1 bunch of kale chopped

***Sautee all above ingredients in a Tbsp of coconut oil for about 10 minutes***

Add spices to veggies: 1Tbsp chili powder, 1tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, and touch of salt if you wish. Sautee spices with veggies for about 10 more minutes.

Turn crockpot on low and add a carton of low sodium vegetable broth and a carton of portabello mushroom soup. Add veggie mixture.

Rinse all beans in a strainer before adding them to the crockpot. 1 can of organic great northern beans, 1 can of organic black beans and one can of organic kidney beans. Also wash a cup of pearl barley and add it to the crockpot. (adding barley will give the soup a different slimy type of texture so omit if you don't like pearl barley)

I took some organic grass fed beef and sliced it into little chunks and sauteed them in coconut oil on high just to brown each side, then added them to the crockpot half cooked.

You can cook soup on low heat for about 4-5 hours. Even with 8 cups of liquid my soup ended up really thick, more stew like. I think the barley soaked up a ton of the liquid. I ended up adding more vegetable broth until I got it the consistency I liked. If you are a texture person, you can leave the barley out. The pearl barley has a slimy texture to it and you could really take it or leave it. I didn't mind it at all and the boys loved it. My husbands only complaint was the texture so there it is!! This will make a ton of soup! A good soup to share or give to someone who may need help with a meal for the week!