Slow Cooker Sauerkraut Casserole

I’m preparing to move again. As such, I’ve been working on using up the food in my kitchen. The original recipe comes from the “Fix it and Forget it Vegetarian Cookbook”  and allowed me to use up a weird stockpile of pasta that I seem to have accumulated (I almost never stockpile pasta). This was seriously the easiest recipe ever. My mother would be proud. It can’t get much easier than opening some cans and stirring. And you know what? We all need recipes like this in our lives. We need them for the hard days. And we need them for the days when we’re exhausted from work or play. And we need need them for the days when you decide you want to live a little outside of the sphere of chores and house tasks.

Now, I found the original recipe lacking a little bit the first time I made it. So I made some modifications. For one, this stuff needs a topping. The recipe is very plain so finding a topping you like is key. I tried a variety of things which you’ll see listed below. The picture here has Italian bread crumbs scattered on top. I think my favorite toppings were sauteed mushrooms and french fried onions.

Second, I have also found that this is SO easy that I get easily annoyed having to dice and saute a single onion. So I’ve altered the recipe below to add that into the ingredients, meaning that you need to pre-saute the onion. This may seem annoying but bear with me. One of the nights you’re making dinner, cut and saute two onions instead of one and then shove the rest into a Tupperware so you can just dump it in on that day. I suppose you could also use those dried onions too if you wanted. This step also cuts down on your cooking time on the day-of. This being only a 2 hour recipe you can’t very well leave it on while you’re at work all day. Prepping the onion ahead of time means you don’t have to wait even longer the day you want to make it. It also means that technically, if you have a youngster that is of the age to cook and gets home from school before you, you could leave these very easy directions next to the crock-pot on the counter and kiddo could start this after arriving home. And that means that dinner is done even sooner and you don’t have to worry about them burning down the house on a Tuesday.

Slow Cooker Sauerkraut Casserole
16-oz. package noodles, cooked and drained
28-oz. can sauerkraut, drained
3 10 3/4-oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1 small onion, diced and sauteed in butter
1 1/2 cups milk or soy milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Toppings (any, optional):
sauteed mushrooms
green onion
french fried onion
breadcrumbs
croutons

1. Mix all the ingredients in a buttered slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on high 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding more milk if necessary.

 

Slow Cooker Sauerkraut Casserole with Italian bread crumb topping