Cooking Tomato-Soup with Electric Slow Cooker

Recipe by Lia Stoltzfus

Ingredients:
- 1 cup of macaroni
- 2 potatoes ( cut cubes)
- 1 carrot
- 1 cup of sweet corn
- 250 gr of minced beef
- 1 glass of tomato pasta sauce and herbs
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of pepper
- Water to fill up the crockpot

Directions:
Add all ingredients together in the slow cooker and according to Lia, "cook low for 9 hours from 9 pm till 6 am, and the house will smells good when u wake up :-)"

Additional Information:
I am running out of easy ideas of what to cook for a meal. I usually use the electric cooker to cook Chinese-style soup, and thus I was very happy to find this :-). The original recipe calls for celery, but since I didn't have, I use green peas instead.

Chinese Peanut Lotus Root Soup/花生莲藕湯 [huā shēng lián ǒu tāng]

Recipe from Jannie Sze Silfverberg

Serves 4

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 5-8 hours

Ingredients:
- 1 fresh whole chicken or 500g of pork ribs
- 1 cup peanuts
- 5 pieces of lotus roots (I use the dried ones available in Copenhagen)
- 8 red dates
- 8 pieces of dried scallop or 1 dried cuttle fish (to give sweetness to the soup)
- 1-1.5 litres of water
- 1 medium size carrot, cubed (optional)

Directions:
1. Dump all the ingredients into the electric slow cooker and cook for 5-8 hours.

Tips:
1. To prevent choking hazards, blend the peanuts for toddlers. This also aids digestion.

2. Puree the left-over peanuts from the soup and freeze it in cubes. I will spread it on J's rye bread for lunch in the day care.

Nutritional Value:
Peanuts have a high source of nutrients with over 30 essential nutrients. They are high in protein and energy and have a high content of unsaturated “good” fats. Excellent for brain health and circulation and blood flow. Peanuts also contain a high amount of anti-oxidants that help slow down the process of aging.

For Babies:
This soup is NOT for babies under 1 year old, as peanuts are known to be high allergen food. However, boiled peanuts have a lower risk of causing an allergic reaction over roasting (as some studies have shown). Furthermore, generally speaking Chinese babies are not so prone to allergies compared to European babies, probably because the Chinese genes are used to all kinds of food through the centuries... haha. I tested it on J by giving him a little bit of the meat at 11 months, and he took it well, in fact, he loves it so much and asked for more. He has no allergic reactions to it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Information:
This is a very nutritious soup. Instead of making rice, when I don't have the time, I dish out the ground peanuts, puree it and feed it to J on a separate bowl.

This is a very traditional Chinese soup, a Chinese delight not many Europeans will like. This is not my Significant Other's favourite. I didn't like this soup as a child when my mother made it in our home, but love it as an adult and I miss it so much when I am in Denmark. I drink and eat it quite often now. J, perhaps due to his half-Chinese genes, loves it even as a toddler :

Updated 26 January 2011:

After almost 11 years of being marrid, I am pleased to say that I was pleasantly surprised that he said it tasted very good when I made it today. I know he didn't say it just to please me, because he took 1 big bowl and asked for second helping. It must either because my Significant Other's taste buds have finally converged towards me, or that my cooking skills have improved tremendously :-P

The Chinese Black Bean Soup/Den Kinesiske Sørte Bønne Suppe/黑豆湯[hēi dōu tāng]

Preparation and cooking time: It only takes 5 minutes to prepare and just let it cook automatically for 5-8 hours on low power or 3 hours on high power.

Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken or 1 pound fresh pork bones
- 1 cup of black beans
- 10 red dates
- 1 dried cuttlefish or 5 dried scallops (optional but makes the soup sweeter)
- 2 - 3 L of water

Directions:
1. Remove skin from chicken and soak the black beans overnight, if you have the time. If not, simply skip this step. It is ok.

2. Dump all the ingredients into the electric slow cooking pot and slow cook for 5-8 hours.

3. Dish out and add salt to taste. Serve with rice (preferably brown rice) and stir-fry vegetables Chinese style on the side to make a complete meal.

For babies:
From 8 months. This is a very nutritious soup for babies. Just remember NOT to add salt into it when you are making the soup!

Nutritional Value:
Black beans are an excellent source of iron and manganese. Black beans are an excellent source of cholesterol-lowering fiber and high quality protein. Black beans are high in dietary fiber, folate, molybdenum, tryptophan, vitamin B1 (thiamin), complex carbohydrates, magnesium and phosphorus.

Black beans have also recently been reported to be an extremely good source of nutritional antioxidants. Gram for gram, black beans are found to have the most antioxidant activity in the bean family.

Black beans help protect against cancer, lower heart attack risk and are good for diabetic as it give you energy to burn while stabilizing blood sugar. When combined with a whole grain such as whole wheat pasta or brown rice, provide protein comparable to that of meat or dairy foods without the high calories or saturated fat found in these foods.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Information:
I prepare in the evening and slow cook overnight. Soup ready for the next day for lunch pack to work. Also soup is done all ready at dinner time, perhaps just to heat it up. Pack the remainder in the fridge and bring it for lunch the following day. This method kills 3 birds with one stone - 2 lunches and 1 dinner - super!

Also if you don't have the time or forget to make rice, simply eat the black beans as a substitute for rice. The black beans are very filling and high in fiber.

References:
http://www.noobcook.com/chinese-black-bean-soup/
http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/black-bean-cuttlefish-soup/