Tricia's Week 49 Recipe: Leftover BBQ soup

What do you do when you have a few cups (maybe a lb) of leftover raspberry something pork loin, some celery that is threatening to wilt, and more snow in your driveway than you can shake your shovel at?  You make up a soup recipe with what you have in the house, and hope it works!  I  had an idea of making a navy bean type soup with the pork instead of ham, but couldn't find a recipe I liked.  So, I made up a soup recipe - 'How hard can it be?', I thought to myself.  You need a broth, some veg, some meat, and then a noodle or bean or rice.  So, this is what I came up with:

Leftover pork BBQ soup.
6 stalks celery
8-10 baby carrots (b/c that is what was in the house)
1 can kernal corn
1 can great northern beans
leftover pork loin (about 1 lb)
5 cups chicken broth (made with chicken stock from Penzey's)
1/4 cup BBQ sauce (sweet baby rays)
10-12 shakes BBQ 3000 (from Penzey's)
5-6 shakes Italian Seasoning (from Penzey's)
1 garlic clove

Start with your celery.  Take all stalks left that can be used (in this case, perhaps 6), and cut up. Mince your garlic clove.  Saute with olive oil and granulated onion (since we don't use a lot of real onion in my house, you'd use a small white if you used real onion), and BBQ 3000 seasoning from Penzey's.  I didn't measure, but I'd say I used 6 shakes BBQ 3000.

While this is thinking about itself, cut up carrots and put them in crock pot. (I used my middle sized crock pot.  Not the dip one, and not the giant one.)  Also cut up the pork into bite sized chunks, add to pot.  When celery is nicely sauted, add to crock pot.  Open, drain, and rinse both the corn and beans, and add those.

Add the chicken stock (if Penzey's it's about 1/2 to 3/4 tsp to each cup hot water )to the gravy-shaker thing (Tupperware brand, as a top and a little plastic ring/cross thing inside).  Add hot water.  My gravy-shaker thing does two cups at once.  I did two cups and added it, then I did one cup and added 1/4 cup BBQ sauce to the shaker and shook that, and added it, and then I made the final two cups.  This was all my crock pot would hold with all the veg and meat in the soup already.

Stir up and add a few more shakes of BBQ 3000 and 5-6 shakes Italian Seasoning.  Turn crock pot to high for about 1 hour and then to low. 

Taste as it goes along to see what you might need to add for the broth. I added a bit of crushed red pepper about an hour in to give it a bit of kick.  Serve when hungry.

Yay! This soup was a winner.  It has a nice broth with a bit of a kick to it, and plenty of veg.  The meat wasn't too tough (was a bit worried about that leftover pork loin, but simmering the soup for 3 hrs did the trick).  I will definitely be exploring in the world of soup more this winter!