Slow Cooker White Bean Soup

This soup utilizes readily available ingredients to create a large pot of flavorful soup. The weather has been biting lately, and a steaming bowl of this soup with a nice chunk of bread is helpful to cure the winter blues.

Recipe from Budget Bytes. 

Other Soup Wednesday Posts: Cauliflower + Hazelnut Soup with Fried Sage; Udon Soup with Poached Egg and Bok Choy;  Minestrone with Gnocchi; Italian Wedding Soup with Veggie Balls; Thai Peanut Soup; and Curried Cauliflower Soup.

Ingredients:
-2 tablespoon olive oil
-4 cloves garlic
-1 medium yellow onions
-1/2 lb. carrots
-4 stalks (1/2 sleeve) celery
-1 lb. dry navy beans*
-1 whole bay leaf
-1 teaspoon dried rosemary
-1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
-1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
-Freshly cracked pepper (15-20 cranks of a mill)
-11/2 teaspoon (or more to taste) salt

* An important note from the original poster... "Make sure to get navy beans, not cannellini beans, which are related to the kidney bean. Kidney beans and cannellini beans contain a high level of phytohemagglutinin, which is a strong, naturally occurring gastrointestinal toxin. The levels of this toxin can actually increase if the beans are not fully boiled for ten minutes. If you're unsure about your beans, boil the beans on the stove top for at least ten minutes before adding to the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients."

Mince the garlic, dice the onion, slice the celery, and slice the carrots into thin rounds. Add the olive oil, garlic, onion, celery, and carrots to a large slow cooker.

Sort through the beans to remove any that don't look good, then give them a quick rinse before adding them to the slow cooker with the bay leaf, rosemary, thyme, paprika, and some freshly cracked pepper.

Add SIX CUPS of water to the slow cooker and stir to combine the ingredients. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 8 hours on low or on high for 4-5 hours. Taste and adjust the amount of salt as desired.

This soup is simple to make, but the result is pretty flavorful. This is more of a hearty comfort meal than five star dining, but we were pretty pleased with how easy it was to make. I hate when slow cooker recipes have you saute ingredients before adding them to the slow cooker, it's best when everything just goes into the slow cooker at one time like in this recipe.