Autumn Vegetable Soup

How this autumn vegetable soup came into being... My 91 year old aunt and my neighbors could not cook dinner one week, so the last minute I decided to make a very large pot of soup and it turned out delicious!

Serves 12 people, just enough to freeze and give for extra meals.

1 5 - 6 quart crock-pot / slow cooker
Cook on high for 4 hours.

Ingredients - all the veggies were scrubbed clean and cut into chunky pieces. I do not peel the vegetables unless stated below because there are a lot of nutrients in the outer covering of a vegetable.

1/2 cup lentils or any bean of your choice. Soak in water for a couple of hours before cooking soup or cook in slow cooker for a couple of hours before adding rest of ingredients.

1 miniature round gourd - boil in water for 20 minutes to make it easy to cut - remove seed.
1 large medium white or yellow onion
3 strips celery
1 - 2 cups carrots
Peel 1 large parsnip
Peel 1 medium turnip
1 large yam - this will make your soup thick.
1 small zucchini
1 miniature pumpkin - boil in water for 20 minutes to make it easy to cut - remove seeds
1/2 bag frozen corn kernels
1/2 bag Italian frozen green beans
1 cup rice
1/8 cup wild rice
1 glove crushed garlic
1 tablespoon wheat free tamari sauce
1 tablespoon salt free Spike (found in condiment section of grocery store)
1 teaspoon salt (can increase to 1 tablespoon if not concerned with sodium intake)
1 teaspoon pepper
1 - 16 ounce cartoon of low sodium vegetable soup

Directions
Put crock-pot temperature on high. Add above ingredients. Then fill pot to within 1" of top with water. Cover and cook!

We served this with a thick slice of pumpkin bread.