Recipe: Slow Cooker Butter Bean Minestrone from Hugh Acheson — Slow Cooker Recipes from The Kitchn

The slow cooker is a mainstay of modern American cooking — but it's not just you and me firing up the Crock-Pot on a weeknight. Famous chefs and celebrities are not above its charms, and this week we're bringing you five recipes from five kitchen stars that show off their favorite ways to put the slow cooker to good use.

Hugh calls this Southern minestrone from his new cookbook, The Chef and the Slow Cooker, "a brothy celebration of all things vegetable," and we have to agree. The star of this celebration? The humble butter bean — a legume that, when cooked properly, becomes nearly as creamy and smooth as its namesake. Butter beans are a staple of Southern food and, in fact, I can think of few things more Southern than a pot of butter beans simmering away on the stove all day long. Acheson captures that essence perfectly in this recipe, designed for the slow cooker rather than your grandma's stockpot.

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