Slow cooking mushrooms in ginger and garlic broth gives this vegan hot and sour soup a deep and delicious flavor. Perfect crock pot meal!
My poor slow cooker has spent most of its life gathering dust on a shelf, but lately it is getting a workout thanks to Kathy Hester’s new book, The Vegan Slow Cooker. With easy recipes, a clean layout, and lovely photos, it’s enticed even a last-minute cook like me to think ahead a little and get my crock pot going in the morning so that when dinnertime comes the meal is already done. Fortunately, Kathy’s publisher sent me two copies of her book, so I have one to share with a lucky reader–maybe you! [Update: A winner has been drawn. Thank you to all who entered. See the end of the post for details.]
When you open The Vegan Slow Cooker, the first thing you’ll notice is the layout: each recipe has its own page (no turning back and forth between ingredients and instructions) with ingredients on the left and instructions on the right. Kathy breaks the instructions down into two parts, what to do the night before and what to do in the morning, so that the recipes come together quickly in the morning when you’re likely to have less time. And if you’re a visual person, you’ll be happy to know that there are large, professionally shot photos of about 40 of the 150 recipes. Most recipes are easy and call for ingredients that are not hard to find in supermarkets.
Many of the recipes do use seitan and soy, but Kathy offers substitutes and includes recipes for making your own seitan (“Chick’n” and “Beefy”) as well as a gluten-free apple sage sausage, homemade ketchup, and low-sodium “chickeny” bouillon. Soy-free and gluten-free recipes are marked with symbols, and asterisks indicate substitutes for soy and gluten.
Though many of the recipes contain a little olive oil or vegan margarine, there are several recipes that are fat-free as written, including Creamy Butternut Squash Risotto, Caribbean Mango Black Beans, and Chile-Chocolate Black Bean Brownies (includes walnuts). Most of the oil that is used is easily removed by sauteing with water or broth, though the recipes that include vegan cheese may be a little harder to adapt for low-fat dieters.
You can get a taste of Kathy’s recipes for yourself at her blog, Healthy Slow Cooking. She has also contributed several to the main Fatfree Vegan Recipes site, where they’ve become some of the most popular recipes. You can see them all on this page.
I had a hard time deciding which recipe to test from the book–both the Pumpkin Lasagna and the Caribbean Mango Black Beans had me intrigued–but the decision was taken out of my hands when my husband saw the Hot and Sour Soup recipe. It’s a soup he’s been craving ever since he became vegetarian, and I just haven’t found a recipe he really likes.
Kathy’s version, however, was a huge success. Though it wasn’t exactly what he remembered, it was so flavorful due to the long-cooking of the mushrooms in garlic and ginger-flavored broth–we both loved it.
Though the recipe says that it makes 4 servings, they are very big servings, and since we were eating it as part of a meal that included stir-fried vegetables and rice, we actually enjoyed leftovers for two more meals. I didn’t think the 1 teaspoon of chile sauce (I used Sambal Oelek) would be very spicy, but it turned out too hot for E, so spicy-haters beware and use a little less. With the chile sauce on the side, this soup will be a regular in our house.
Kathy's Slow-Cooker Hot and Sour Soup
Ingredients
- 1 10-ounce package sliced mushrooms (280g)
- 8 fresh shiitake mushrooms stems removed and caps sliced
- 1 8-ounce can bamboo shoots, drained and jullienned (225g)
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 15-ounce package firm or silken tofu, cubed (420g)
- 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, divided (16g)
- 4 cups water (940ml)
- 2 tablespoons vegan chicken-flavored bouillon (16g)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce (or tamari, for gluten-free) (30ml)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil plus extra for drizzling (Susan's note: I didn't need the extra)
- 1 teaspoon chili paste
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar (30ml)
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas (225g)
Instructions
- The Night Before: Store the cut-up mushrooms, bamboo shoots, garlic, and tofu in an airtight container in the fridge. Store the prepared ginger in another airtight container in the fridge.
- In the Morning: Combine the mushrooms, bamboo, shoots, garlic, tofu, 1 tablespoon (8g) of the ginger, water, bouillon, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili paste, and vinegar in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours.
- A few minutes before serving, add the peas and the remaining 1 tablespoon (8g) ginger and stir to combine. Taste the broth and add more vinegar or chili if needed. Drizzle a few drops of sesame oil on top of each serving. If you like it milder and your friends like it hot, serve the chili paste on the side.
- Preparation time: 15 minute(s) | Cooking time: 6 to 8 hour(s)
- Number of servings (yield): 4
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
Please pin and share!
Bev
1 I make baked potoatoes in my crock pot.
2 I would love to cook more in the crock pot to simplify and plan meals better.
I would love a cookbook.
Lori
I’d like a copy of this book because I am a veterinary student and have to make meals on the weekends to get me through weeks of all-day classes and all-evening studying.
Daisy McFadden
Sounds delicious. But I don’t have a slow cooker. Can this be made on stove top?
Julie Shanson
My favorite slow cooker recipe is Judith Finlayson’s Gingery Chick Peas. I’ve yet to get the water right, though, sometimes it’s too dry and sometimes it’s too wet… A close second is black bean chili (using a modified version of the recipe in the Greens Cookbook) Would love to find more to add to the repertoire!
Eselpee
I work three 12-hour days in a row, and this is just what I need ….but I won’t be too disappointed if I don’t win (maybe a little) b/c I will buy it if I don’t!
AikoVenus
I would love a copy of this book because I’m so busy with school and work that sometimes I don’t have the time to get delicious meals for the day before and microwave meals are a no-go, even if they are vegan.
Michele
I would love to have more options with a slow cooker for VEGAN meals. I only use it now for cooking beans and I love how they come out. Especially the black beans. So much more tasty than in the cans and no BPA or salt and you can freeze them in freezer bags. Thanks Susan……enjoy all that you do.
Becky
I have several good slow cooker recipes but I think my favorite is Kittee’s red beans served with rice, greens and steamed seitan sausages.
krystle
That looks delicious, I love hot and sour soup! I would love to see what other recipes are in that book. Slow cookers are so awesome, its so nice to have dinner ready when you get home!
janet @ the taste space
I haven’t yet tried my slow cooker – can you believe it? I was thinking of starting slowly with steel0cut oats or beans, but this soup may let me take the plunge, it looks so good. That cookbook sounds awesome and I am totally intrigued by the gluten-free apple sage sausage!
Erin
My favorite slow cooker recipe is black bean and sweet potato chili!
bookharlot
A favorite slow cooker meal in our house is vegetarian Taco Soup. Yum yum!
Julie
My poor slow cooker has been gathering dust since I gave up meat nearly two years ago…help!
Ruth
It’s just coincidence, but after not using my slow cooker for at least two years, I got it out last week and made Garden Chili. It was great and I decided to use the cooker much more often. Now, all I need are some good recipes! So this recipe book sounds like just what I need!
Kathy Lowe
The picture of your Hot and Sour Soup makes my mouth water it looks so good. I would love to win a copy of the book, The Vegan Slow Cooker, so my days could be better spent conquering the realities of life instead of standing over a stove.
Thanks so much!
sharron sussman
This looks like a wonderful cookbook – I too am just getting into slow-cooker recipes and could use a vegan compilation, and have mostly made only chili-type dishes so far… We live in a rural mountain area, and stovetop slow cooking in enameled cast iron pots uses a huge amount of expensive propane – the electric cooker is a very thrifty option for me.
Whether I win the cookbook or not, I will definitely be trying that hot & sour soup recipe!
Sharron Sussman
Julian California
Kelly
I need this book because I don’t have time to cook! My crockpot is my best friend but usually it’s just filled with plain old beans. Boring.
Denise
My favorite slow cook meal is my mom’s vegetable soup. She would take all of our left over veggies, put them in the freezer and on the first cool day pull them out to make a large pot of vegetable soup.
Now as an adult, I make my own version with fresh veggies and vegetable broth. Combine that with organic vegan bread from my local bakery and vegan butter. Yum.
Susan
I’ve always thought I should give the slow cooker a try. I used to help my mother make beef stew in hers when I was a kid, but otherwise I’ve never used one. It seems like it would be a great fit for me–I’m a busy grad student who loves to cook but doesn’t always have time in the evenings to fix dinner. But it has really been a challenge for me to find slow cooker recipes that fit with the way I eat (I’m currently vegetarian and trying to move more in a vegan direction). So, yeah. That’s why I would love to get a copy of this book.
Cecilia
I love my slow cooker, but haven’t used it since I went vegan. Would love some good, healthy recipes.
Danielle
My favorite slow cooker recipe is this crock pot curry: http://crepesofwrath.net/2009/05/23/crock-pot-chicken-curry-with-apple-banana-and-tomato/
I replace the chicken with chickpeas, and it is soooo good! We eat in anywhere from two times a month to weekly, and it makes really good leftovers.
I am always looking for good vegan slow cooker recipes, and I bet I will be buying this book soon if I don’t win it!
Debra Sabah Press
I would LOVE to have a copy of this book. In August, I decided to stop buying baby food and have been making all of the food for our babies. It’s been wonderful to watch T & J venture into the world of veggies, legumes, etc., knowing that they are eating whole, unprocessed foods, but I don’t have much time to cook. I really need to start using our slow cooker to prepare their meals, but I just haven’t done it. I hope this book will be just the thing to kickstart my adventures in slow cooking for twins.
Arlene Barber
ooh!! *waves hand* Pick me! I love crockpots and cooking and vegan recipes, and the 6th is my birthday, so it would be a great birthday surprise!! My best ‘habit’ is making a regular size recipe and freezing individual portions to take along in my lunch on my long 12-hour workdays. It helps keep the call of the vending machines at bay if I have a good variety of healthy lunch items stowed away in the freezer for quick-grab packing. And I buy stacks of clear deli containers at a food service supply store. One lid for three different sizes. Makes the freezer stocking up even easier. Love your site and your recipes! ~Arlene Barber
Krista Bowers
I have had a slow cooker for many years, but have never had good vegan recipes to cook in it, so it has sat unused in the back of a cabinet. Many times, I have considered actually getting rid of, but have not been able to bring myself to do so, hoping that one day I might learn how to use it. I would LOVE to have this cookbook, so that I might actually put this poor, lonely slow cooker to good use! Thanks 🙂
judee@ Gluten Free A-Z
Susan,
I have been following the Eat To Live Diet for about a month and would love to have more vegan recipes. In addition, I LOVE using my crock pot for everything, so this book is right up my alley. Thanks for this recipe. I love your blog!
Gayle Mayhew
I have so many good reasons why I should win this cookbook that I don’t know where to start. How about (1) I had to work really hard to figure out how to comment, since I have never done this before. (2) Yours is the only blog I really read (3) I bought a slow cooker for my step daughter that she GAVE AWAY (4) The slow cooker in 1979 was the only thing I really wanted from my first marriage, and I had to fight for it (5) Need I go on? I am not a creative writer either, this is all true. Oh…and I love vegan cookbooks. Vegetarian are fine, but vegan is better.
Amy
My husband needs this book! If he learned how to use the slow cooker, he could learn to cook with confidence. He is shy in the kitchen. And if the slow cooker recipes were vegan, I would be more likely to eat them, thus giving him more confidence to cook some more. Pick me!
kanesha
Hi! I would love a free copy of The Vegan Slow Cooker! I am a recent convert to the vegan lifestyle. I love to cook and I am having a hard time gathering vegan recipes that I enjoy to cook and serve. The exception to this is an AMAZING vegan black bean and tomatillo chili (it really helps that the tomatillos in my garden did very well this year…) Needless to say, I love my slow cooker and would love to use it more often…Help:)
Beth
I want one of these books because I am a graduate student with 2 jobs, maybe three if I take the vegan baking job for 10 hours a week, and I have no time to cook. I love my slow cooker, and your website sometimes is all that gets me through the week, but I need more recipes since I am getting in the rut of making the same thing all the time. Since I am so busy and so broke, I am pretty much living off of the slow cooker right now.
Courtney
I would love to win the book because I have a crock pot and it does not get enough use, lol! I need some inspiration 🙂
Courtney
Linda Kotz
I would love to have this cookbook, as I am a vegan with a very busy lifestyle! Since I own and ride 3 horses, I am mostly outside (my poor hubby) and use my crockpot constantly for everything from soup and stew to baked potatoes. I would love to have a vegan slowcooker cookbook!
Gary Mitchener
Although my original motivation for transitioning to a whole-food plant-based diet was seeing the excellent documentary, “Forks over Knives,” my urgency came from being diagnosed with prostate cancer. All of that sounds pretty heavy. But the reality is I’m being opened to a whole new perspective on planning meals, visiting our Shaker Square Farmers’ Market, and creative cooking. Not to mention enjoying the tasty results, and now proselytizing among the guys in my Mankind Project group!
Marissa C.
My favorite thing to do in the crock pot is marinara sauce. Ever since I found out how yummy homemade pasta sauce, I have a hard time doing jarred. Making it in the slow cooker gives it time to develop a richness and a thickness that makes me salivate just thinking about it….mmmm……
Caryn
My favorite — and only — slow cooker recipe is vegan black bean chili. I’ve actually got 2 slow cookers so I can make enough of the chili for parties. But it’s the only recipe I really have (I’m a really poor cook). I would love to win the book so I can expand my repertoire and make my family and party guests happy!
Andrea Boddam
My busy college life has many a time been saved by my slow cooker. Because of it I have yet to find myself supping upon some crappy ramen noodles because they were quick and easy to make.
It makes sure I have a nutritious breakfast ready in the morning (steel cut oats baby!) and I never have to worry about soaking and prepping beans to boil. Just turn that bad boy on and it does all the work while I get back to my studies.
I would LOVE a copy so I could have some new vegan recipes to try out! Pumpkin lasagna… sounds amazing!
((PS: I LOVE your red beans and rice recipe Susan! It’s my favourite thing to make in my cooker. I actually had two people ask for the recipe when eating it in class the other day))
Jessica Eagle
First of all, thank you for giving us the opportunity to win this book. I really appreciate that. I would love to win this cookbook to have different good vegan recipes to make an elaborate dinner even the days I don’t have much time to cook. It would be great to make it in the morning and have it ready to go.
Thanks and have a nice day,
Jessica 🙂
Joanne Cetnar
I would love the book. As a retired “senior” I am finallly becoming interested in a better eating experience and I use many of the recipes from this sight. This would be a great addition to my collection.
Phill Hoxie
I would like a copy of The vegan slow cooker as it is hard to find slow cooker recipes and I do like to have dinner almost done when I come home after a hard day of being retired.
Iris Miller
Hi Susan, I would love to win and would cherish that cookbook, because I am a low income senior;
my birthday is Thursday Oct. 6, and I will be 69 years old
I am trying to become a full time vegetarian and would love some more tasty recipes (I have already “friended” you on my facebook)
I love reading your blog, and
LOVE sweet and sour soup! Thank you so much for that recipe!
blessings and love,
Iris
Susan Wernet
I’d love to win the cook book! I stopped eating animal products in 2007 and I love to have great new recipes to try out on my friends and family as I try to tempt them over to my kind of eating!
Thank you! Susan Wernet
Rocky River, Ohio