2 day pork soup

This is a slow cooker extravaganza! 

First put a big pork roast in the crock pot. Add some yummy spices to the top, and some water (and possibly some wine) to the bottom. Cook on low for a long time, 8-9 hours. Get some nice big buns to toast.  Pull off some pork and add BBQ sauce (or don't) and have pulled pork sandwiches. I like mine with cabbage or slaw or radish relish. 

Julienne radishes, cucumbers, and pickled ginger-done! 

After dinner, remove bones and extra fat chunks from the crockpot, store a large portion of the pork in a container for more delicious sandwiches, and leave about a pound in the crockpot juices, stick the whole thing in the fridge. 

At some point roast a bulb of garlic on 350-375 for about an hour. Cut off the tops, add olive oil, and wrap in foil. 

(Or you can just throw garlic cloves in the crockpot the first day). 

The next day, plug the slow cooker back in; this time you will only need to cook it for about 3 hours. 

Add napa cabbage, bok choy, or any hardy green to the crockpot, maybe add more liquid too- I added 2 cups of water and 1 cup of wine. 

Fry some minced ginger (I used about 2 inches) in olive oil and add it in. (This is another place you can add the garlic- mince it, fry it with the ginger and add it in). 

After about 3 hours, scoop some soup in a giant bowl, add yummy fresh toppings- bean sprouts, jalapeños, green onions, basil. And you have crockpot pho! I put cooked rice noodles in my giant soup bowl before I scooped on my soup, I also added sriacha. Yum, yum. 

This whole process provided dinner for us all week, but you can also freeze the broth or some of the pork for use later. 

After the pho type soup, I made another soup with beans, carrots and rice. Again slow cooking for about three hours. There was still napa cabbage in it as well. It worked well for a cold winter week of dinners. 

What's next? My little garden.