Given that there are so many easy recipes for soup, there’s no excuse to be buying the shop-bought stuff.

Cooking soup yourself will give you a tastier and far more nutritious meal than the ready-made options.

For this chicken and vegetable soup, I used my trusty slow cooker, which meant that it took less than five minutes to prepare.

This is a comforting chicken vegetable soup simmered to perfection with tender shreds of chicken and chunks of hearty vegetables in a rich and hearty chicken broth.

While this is a cheap recipe, you can save more money by using cheaper cuts of chicken. I just opted for chicken breasts as that was what I already had in my fridge.

Ingredients 

Three large chicken breasts

One onion, peeled and finely chopped

Two celery sticks, sliced

Three medium carrots, chopped

One large potato, peeled and chopped into bite-size chunks

One bay leaf

Salt and pepper

One litre strong chicken stock (I used water plus four stock cubes)

To serve

Crusty bread

Method 

I started by prepping the vegetables - this included peeling and chopping the carrots, onions, potatoes and celery.

The next step was to add all of the ingredients to the slow cooker and give it all a good mix.

I then placed the lid on and left it to cook for six hours on low, but can be left for four hours if set on high.

Once the time was up, I removed the lid, took out the chicken using a set of tongs and discarded the bay leaf.

I placed the chicken pieces on a chopping board and shredded them using two forks.

Then, I added the chicken back into the slow cooker and stirred it all together before serving it up.

Give it a taste after the initial cooking time and add a little more salt and pepper if needed.

The saltiness of the soup will depend on the stock you’re using so don’t over season at the beginning.

You can’t go wrong serving this slow cooker chicken and vegetable soup up with a nice wedge of crusty bread.

It tastes like a warm hug in a bowl, juicy tender chicken, loads of veggies, and flavourful stock coming together for a cosy and satisfying bowl of soup.