One of our favourite big batch recipes for a slow cooker Minestrone Soup – a comforting and nourishing family dinner which you can stash in the freezer for nights when you’re just too tired to cook.

What we love about this big batch recipe, apart from the fact, it’s yummy minestrone, is how simple it is to make. Simply chuck in all the ingredients into your slow cooker and leave for 6-7 hours (popping the pasta in 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time).

If you don’t have 2 slow cookers to batch cook this recipe, don’t worry, simply chuck the remaining prepped ingredients into a ziplock bag and freeze or refrigerate.  Then, when you’re ready to cook up another batch, simply defrost the ziploack bag full of the ingredients and dump in the slow cooker and away you go!

Batch cooking doesn’t have to be even more exhausting – we love the simplicity of this big batch recipe.

Serves 16

Ingredients

2 litres vegetable stock

2 x 375ml cans of chopped tomatoes

1 cup uncooked pasta shells

12 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

8 celery sticks, chopped

1 cup green beans, chopped

1 red capsicum, diced

1 yellow capsicum, diced

4 carrots, diced

2 x 375 gram cans of 4 bean mix, rinsed and drained

2 teaspoons dried oregano

4 teaspoons dried thyme

2 teaspoons dried rosemary

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Use 2 slow cookers, 1 catering sized one or make in two batches.  See above for the ziplock baggy method.

Combine all ingredients except dry pasta in the slow cooker.

Cook on low for 7-8 hours, until smells good and everything is cooked, (check the carrot pieces are soft and cooked through).

Add the pasta shells and cook on high for an additional 15 minutes or until the pasta is cooked.

Serve or allow to cool and freeze in batches.