But pasta e fagioli – which literally translates to “pasta and beans” – is an Italian peasant dish traditionally made with inexpensive, vegetarian ingredients. So I added meat to half of it. I’m so difficult that way.

I’ve been wanting to adapt pasta e fagioli for the Crock Pot for awhile, and this Slow Cooker Vegetarian Pasta e Fagioli Soup seemed like a natural variation.  Sturdy kidney beans, carrots, and cabbage mingle with tomatoes and Italian-seasoned veggie broth for a warm, comforting dinner.

If your garden’s overflowing (finally!) with zucchini like ours is, you might throw some of that in there, too.

A little pasta and, if you desire, cooked ground beef thrown in to a portion at the end for the meat-eaters, and you’re good to go.

Something for everyone.

There’s a school of thought out there that onion and garlic should be sauteed before being added to the slow cooker, because sometimes the end result can taste funny. I’ve spent a fair (possibly embarrassing) amount of time pondering and testing this. Because why add that extra work to slow cooker recipe preparation if it’s not necessary?

My conclusion is that for most super-hearty chilis and stews, a quick pre-saute isn’t necessary. But for brothy soups or recipes where very developed flavors and spices are important, it can make a difference. Although the biggest difference is the smell! When you add the onion and garlic raw, when you lift that lid toward the end of the process, your food can smell a little funky. Not bad! But you can just tell if you didn’t cook it up first. It still tastes okay, though – the flavors just aren’t quite as developed.

For this soup, I actually made two versions at the same time – one with pre-cooked onions and garlic, and one where I just dumped everything in. Then my guy and I did a little taste test. I preferred the one with sauteed onion – but I also knew which one it was, so it could have been mental. My guy went in blind – he had no idea which was which – and he slightly preferred the one that started with raw onions!

So I wrote this recipe to include the saute at the beginning of the process – but if you’d rather dump ’em in raw, it won’t make a huge difference in the end result.

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