We ended up having a dinner date with some friends on New Year's Day, so we had dinner out instead of cooking our traditional meal. And instead of going shopping for ingredients I didn't have (ham and black eyed peas), I decided to up my New Year's game.
Traditionally, I make a soup with all of the ingredients. You can see my original recipe here. Well, I made soup again, but I vamped it up a little bit. Instead of ham, I used reduced fat ground pork, and I subbed 15 bean soup in for the black eyed peas.
This go around I decided that the crock pot was the best way to go. I got an early start to my day and was committed to housework, so I thought I would stay ahead of the game by starting dinner right after lunch. This actually ended up backfiring on me, because I'm almost certain my crock pot is about to kick the bucket.
Nonetheless, the soup turned out fabulous, and my kids devoured it. That's really all that matters. It totally doesn't matter that we ate dinner two hours late....
- 1 lb reduced fat ground pork
- 1/2 head of cabbage, medium to large, chopped
- 1 cup dried 15 bean soup, rinsed
- 4 cups low sodium chicken stock
- 1 can (15oz) tomato sauce
- 1 can (14.5oz) petite diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 cup dried minced onion
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1 T basil
- 2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp dill weed
- 2-3 dashes of Swampy's Bar-B-Q Rub (secret ingredient #1)
- 2-3 dashes of Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning (secret ingredient #2)
**This soup does NOT need salt**
What to do:
Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until no longer pink. Season with pepper to taste.
Combine all ingredients in the crockpot, and cook on high for 4-6 hours, or until beans are tender.
(I expect it will cook in about 4 hours if your crock pot works properly. Mine, however, took over 6 hours because it needs to be thrown away.)
Serve with cornbread on the side.
Serve with cornbread on the side.
Enjoy!
Prep time: About 10 minutes
Cook time: All day.
Serves: 6-7
