Here in snowy Minnesota, the perfect meal for a winter day is some kind of warm, filling soup. I have really fond memories of my grandmother’s chicken noodle soup. But as a vegetarian, it can be hard to find a good vegetarian noodle soup recipe that fits my nostalgia.

But one day, my husband (who is most decidedly not a vegetarian) and I were playing around with some recipes and we found something that isn’t exactly the same, but seems to fill that void. Bonus points: it can be made in a slow cooker!

And as always, this recipe is great because you can tweak it however you want. Add in some more veggies, use ingredients you have in your pantry already, or heck throw in some meat. (My husband even threw some chicken in his bowl. If you are interested about how we typically eat the same meals, I wrote about family meals with a vegetarian and a meat eater.)

Ingredients

Here is what you will need:

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 squirt of lime juice
• 3/4 cup of frozen corn
• 1/2 cup monterey jack cheese
• 1 cup macaroni noodles

Instructions

Here’s how easy it is: throw everything except the noodles into the slow cooker.

Then leave it. We have left it on low for 4 hours, but I think you could leave it even longer. Since it is soup, it can cook for a while. Then all you have to do once you are almost ready to eat is prepare the noodles. Cook the macaroni noodles until they are al dente.

Then you toss the noodles in. If you have time, you can let it cook or another 15 minutes or so.

My favorite way to serve this soup is with saltine crackers crushed on top. Andrew also thought it would be good with some chopped cilantro sprinkled on it.

Try it and let me know what you think? Do you have any other vegetarian noodle soup recipes that you swear by?