The Art of Homemade Soup

Long ago, in a kitchen very much like yours, someone cooked for hours at a time. She kneaded bread and rolled out pastry, and whenever the winds blew cold, she whipped up a pot of soup. Now homemade soup is considered so time-consuming that most home cooks never try, but that is exactly why soups are a cinch in a slow cooker: it transforms the long hours of barely simmering ingredients into a convenience. Although almost any soup recipe can be adapted to slow cooking, bean soups, vegetable soups, pureed soups, and long-simmering meat soups make the most sense.