This is, without doubt, bar none, the best tomato soup I have ever tasted. I’ve been making this soup almost weekly to satisfy the craving for the past six months. It’s that good. 

If you have someone in your family who doesn’t like tomato soup, this three-ingredient crockpot recipe is the one you can use to convince them otherwise. It has made diehard fans of me and my boys.

3 Ingredient Tomato Soup

Inspired by a spaghetti sauce that my friend Christi told me about years ago, Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce, this crock-pot tomato soup recipe includes butter as a key ingredient. And let me tell you, it makes a world of difference.

You’ll need just three ingredients to make this recipe: tomatoes, onion, and butter.

The fats from the butter balance out the acidity of the tomatoes and onions beautifully. This is not the sweetly acidic version from a can that you may have experienced as a child. This crockpot tomato soup has a rich, savory taste you will relish.

This is a slow cooker recipe, but you’ll notice I’ve also included stovetop directions. So, feel free to make it however you find the most convenient. I reach for the crockpot most often myself, but for an easy lunch, the stove is my go-to.

Crockpot Tomato Soup

Slow cookers or crockpots are an appliance of which I have more than one. If you are an avid slow cooker user like I am, you might understand the need for more than one. So, let’s talk about my favorites:

First up is this 6-quart slow cooker that has a locking lid. These crockpots are fantastic for transporting foods. Mine has gone everywhere from church potlucks to barbecues, game nights to Thanksgiving dinner. However, fair warning, these slow cookers run crazy hot. Low is closer to a boil than a simmer, the warm setting actually simmers. So trust me when I say HIGH is high.

My everyday slow cooker is this 8-quart Crockpot. It’s my go-to appliance for cooking large roasts and big batches of chili. Fun fact: did you know that a full 4-quart cooker, actually cooks more slowly than a half-full 8-quart cooker?

For just cooking a few pounds of chicken to shred for enchiladas or other smaller recipes, this 3-quart version is perfect.

Thanksgiving has become a breeze since I have mastered how to h

Smoked Brisket Chili – 5 Different Ways

Our chili recipes are some of the most popular out there, so it was time to share our mega tasty Traeger smoked brisket chili! And we are sharing 5 different ways to make it – stove top, oven braised, smoker, slow cooker or Instant Pot.

The smoky flavor of the brisket with those bold chili flavors ands spices makes for an outrageously good bowl of chili. I love to top my bowl with shredded cheddar cheese and some sour cream.

I mean, where do I even start? This smoked brisket chili recipe has been living in my brain for probably the past 5-6 years and it has taken me all this time to get it down on “paper”. How weird that we rarely use paper anymore. Remember all those calendars on walls and sticky notes of reminders?

5 Different Ways

Anyway, I always have leftover brisket, those things are huge and my children are small. Therefore, brisket chili. And you don’t need a ton for this recipe…just 1.5 lbs.

I want to help you out so there will be five different versions explained. Please don’t get bugged! I will get questions about making it different ways so I’m just trying to anticipate that and help. The five different ways are stove top, oven braised, smoked, slow cooker and Instant Pot. Then there will be instructions for both uncooked brisket and leftover brisket for each method. Make sense? Sheesh, I hope so! Here we go…

First, I will start by explaining how to brown uncooked brisket if you’re going to go that route…

How to Brown Brisket for Chili

1. Cube the pieces of raw brisket meat – Trim any hard fat as that will not melt away in the cooking process. Remember, the size of the meat is what you’ll be eating so we want no bigger than 2″ pieces (these will break down so you can smash them a bit, creating smaller pieces once cooked).
2. Season the brisket with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in the bottom of a cast iron dutch oven or large pot until shimmering. Cook the brisket in batches, never at once or it will end up cooking in liquid, aka boiled meat. Remove to a plate and proceed with the recipe of your choice, oven braised, smoked, or stove top. 

 Using Leftover Brisket for Chili

If you have leftover brisket either from our smoked brisket recipe or our slow cooker brisket, your steps will be fewer…

1. Because your meat is already prepared, start by cooking the veggies and seasonings first. 
2. Add cubed
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Beef Barley Soup

Beef barley soup is a hearty and comforting soup full of tender beef, pearl barley, wild rice, mushrooms and savory umami flavor.

I didn’t even know that beef barley soup was a thing. I guess whenever I heard someone mention a barley soup I just went into a mindless state because barley didn’t sound delicious. But it’s the best soup I’ve had in years and that says a lot considering how much my family loves soup. Have you tried “The Soup“? Or maybe our roasted tomato basil soup? We love soups!

If you search for beef and barley soup recipes, you’ll find a lot of the same style of soup — carrots, celery, beef, barley, etc. We have changed things up for this. This is a little different, and more scrumptious imho, than anything you’ll find out there.

Why is This the Best Beef Barley Soup?

My friend and I decided that there are a few small things that are musts in a beef barley soup…

1. No carrots or celery. This isn’t stew and we don’t want it to look, smell or taste like stew. That’s a different recipe!
2. Use wild rice along with the barley. It adds a toothy, flavorful oomph that you will miss if you skip it. You can add as much or as little as you’d like.
3. WHOLE ROAST slowly cooked. We aren’t cutting this baby up, though if you were short on time you could certainly use stew meat and half the baking time. But a whole roast slowly cooked will bring out far more flavor and tenderness in the meat.

Ingredients for Beef Barley Soup

At first glance, this list may look long, but don’t worry! Most ingredients are pantry ingredients and everything combined creates a depth of flavor that is heavenly. Here is what you will need…

• Chuck Roast: you will cook this whole like you would a pot roast
• Olive Oil: helps brown the roast
• Salt and Pepper: adds flavor
• Red Wine Vinegar: helps deglaze the pan and adds acidity
• Water: helps deglaze
• Red Onion: adds flavor and caramelization
• Baby Bella Mushrooms: adds earthy flavor and chewiness
• Pearl Barley: you can find this right by the rice at the grocery store
• Wild Rice: adds an extra layer of flavor and different texture to the soup
• Au Jus Packet: adds bold savory flavor
• Onion Powder: adds flavor
• Garlic Powder: adds flavor
• Oregano: you can also use Italian seasoning if you don’t have oregano
• Balsamic Vinegar: adds a slight sweetness and more acidity
• Worcestershire: our favorite brand is Lea & Perrins
• Beef Broth: helps cook

Award Winning Healthy Turkey Instant Pot Chili

Our Instant Pot Award Winning Chili Recipe is going viral but we couldn’t help but create a healthy instant pot turkey chili recipe for all of you looking for healthy instant pot recipes!

We hear you loud and clear. Cade and I are sitting on the couch watching the Olympics while the kids are in bed (Women’s Snowboarding to be exact, and Chloe Kim is KILLING IT!!!) and writing this Award Winning Healthy Turkey Instant Pot Chili recipe for you all because holy moly, the requests just keep pouring in!!

We almost didn’t post our classic chili recipe because we figured that everyone was totally set in their ways with their own favorite chili recipes, but boy were we wrong! It’s going crazy on our site!

Immediately we started hearing that we needed a vegetarian and a healthy chili recipe, but we can only test so much, so first up, our Award Winning Healthy Turkey Instant Pot Chili! It’s turkey bacon to still give that hint of bacon goodness, but in a more lean way, along with ground turkey, and lots of tomato flavor.

Alright, friends if it was you wanting a healthy Instant Pot dinner recipe, this turkey chili in an Instant Pot is for you!

What’s in Instant Pot Turkey Chili? 

For this healthy Instant Pot chili recipe, you’ll need ground turkey, turkey bacon, a mixture of black and pinto beans, fire roasted diced tomatoes, tomato paste, three kinds of peppers, red onion, chicken stock, and a variety of dried herbs and spices. 

We really wanted to create an Instant Pot turkey chili recipe that could be made with ingredients you already have on hand. You might need to pick up a few of these healthy turkey chili ingredients at the store, but I’m sure you have most of them in your pantry already. Instant pot chili isn’t hard to make, and we wanted to ingredients list to reflect that! 

How to Make Ground Turkey Chili in an Instant Pot

Turn your instant pot to sauté and cook bacon until crisp. Once cooked, remove the bacon and place on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any extra grease.

Add the onions and peppers to the electric

Easiest Apple Butter Recipe (Homemade From Scratch)

This recipe is so simple – it’s the easiest apple butter recipe from scratch. I use all fresh ingredients, and I promise you it tastes just as good as the apple butter you grew up with.

I grew up on pretty much 100% home-canned applesauce, which is amazing as my mom actually hates cooked apples. She did it for us and I’ve loved it ever since. But apple butter, now that’s the next level!! I use it on toast, cooked with pork or chicken, in quick breads and cakes, etc!

All you need is 6 simple ingredients, and this apple butter sauce is yours! Fill your home and belly with the smells and flavors of fall!

Recommended Equipment

• Blendtec Immersion Blender (use coupon code OHSWEETBASIL20 for a 20% off discount!)
• Apple Peeler or Swivel Peeler

Before You Begin

Prepare all the apples by removing the cores, peeling them, and slicing them into bitesize pieces.

What is Apple Butter?

Though it contains no butter, apple butter is a similar consistency of butter. Apple butter is super concentrated sweetened apples that have been pureed to a smooth spreadable sauce. You can think of it as an apple jam. It has intense delicious apple flavor.

Apple Butter Ingredients

Here are the 6 (possibly 7) ingredients you need to make apple butter from scratch:

• Apples: You’ll need about 16 apples depending on the size of the apples to get 6 lbs of apples. Weigh the apples first and then core, peel and cut them.
  • TIP: You’ll need at least a 6 quart slow cooker to hold all these apples.
• Dark Brown Sugar: You can use light brown sugar too, I just love the richness the dark brown sugar adds.
• Sugar: just regular granulated sugar, helps apples caramelize
• Cinnamon: an absolute must for apple recipes and all things fall
• Ground Cloves: adds an extra bit of warmth and flavor
• Salt: cuts through all the sweetness and enhances all the flavors
• Vanilla: this is optional but does add delicious flavor

This is just an overview of the ingredients used in this recipe. The measurements for all the ingredients can be found in the recipe card down at the end of the post.

How to Make Apple Butter in a Slow Cooker

It doesn’t get easier than making this apple butter recipe in the slow cooker! Here is an overview of the steps:

1. Combine the white sugar and spices/seasonings in a small bowl and stir to combine.
2. Add the prepared apples to the sl