Slow cooker Chicken Taco Soup { Vegan and Paleo } friendly options! A flavorful gluten free healthy soup that is comforting for those cold wintry days. Add a generous scatter of fresh cilantro and avocado for an extra kick! The slow cooker does the work and makes it ready when you are!
Slow cooker recipes or crock pot recipes like this chicken taco soup are:
~ Amazing in that they do the work for you! Don’t you agree? It is so nice to be able to throw ingredients into one pot, plug it in, turn it to High or Low and come home at the end of the day to a fragrant filled home with dinner ready to eat.
~ The clean up is just as simple since all that is used for the prep work is one dish!
It’s been a bit chilly around the country and El Niño storms have hit Santa Barbara with lots of rainy day. Rainy cozy days that is. We have dusted off the good ol’ crock pot as soup season is now in full gear! Whenever we make healthy soups in the crock pot I find it is a great way to incorporate whatever frozen or fresh vegetables are around and this time celery is the highlight in our main dishes.
Luckily my boys totally dig celery these days – topped with cream cheese, almond butter and even by itself. Not only is celery a low calorie food but it takes more calories to digest than it actually consists of. The way our bodies are designed 70 percent of the calories you burn each day are solely to support basic bodily functions. Basic bodily functions include tissue repair, pumping blood, thinking, and keeping warm. The smartest way to loose and maintain a healthy weight is to increase your basal metabolism, which celery aids in. We love adding celery to soups as an extra bonus calorie burning powerhouse into our diet, not to mention its high in fiber, potassium, and Vitamin K.
The fun thing is one can add almost any root vegetable into this dish and it will still taste divine. I had a small leftover bag of frozen peas, water chestnut and snap peas that I chopped finely and added in here just to use up and add extra veggies.
If you are out all day, go ahead and put the veggies in the same time as everything else. And if vegan and vegetarian, feel free to use a full can of garbanzo beans mixed with black beans or kidney beans instead of chicken. I prefer to put the broth in the last hour since some of the water evaporates and this way it is more flavorful. But really, it is great either way and I promise you will be pleasantly pleased!
- 2 large frozen chicken breasts
- 2- 14-15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 - 14-15 oz can black beans (drained and rinsed)
- 1- 4oz. can of diced green chili's
- 2 cups frozen chopped spinach
- ½ cup celery, chopped
- ½ sweet onion, chopped
- ½ cup carrots, chopped
- 1 cup of canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained.
- ½ package mild taco mix (I used low sodium)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1- 32oz. box of chicken or vegetable broth
- optional toppings: small avocado chunks, grated cheddar cheese, sliced black olives and cilantro
- Place frozen chicken in the bottom of crockpot. (or no chicken for vegan and use extra veggies and vegetable broth)
- Top chicken with chicken or vegetable broth, diced tomatoes and green chili, rinsed garbanzo beans, diced tomatoes, spinach, cumin and taco mix.
- Cook in crockpot 4 hours (depending on your crockpot) on HIGH. Stir occasionally.
- hour before ready to eat add onion, celery, and carrots. When done, shred chicken with 2 forks. Mix and serve with any optional toppings.
xo,
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