Help with stew

My boyfriend purchased a crock pot a few weeks ago and now he's obsessed with asking me to cook in it.  His latest "want" is vegetable stew (I'm a vegetarian). I have a vegetable SOUP recipe that I always use and he loved the soup (carrots, potatoes, peas, beans, pasta in vegetable broth)...can I just chuck this all into the crock pot and call it "stew" instead of "soup", or is there something different done to broth for stew?

Veggies we purchased:
Carrots
Swede
Parsnip
peas
potatoes

Since stew is just thick soup, you can just thicken it with cornstrach and water. Or flour and water, whichever you prefer. It may help to decrease the liquid in the recipe as well so there's not so much excess broth.

I'd start with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch/flour to 1/4 cup of COLD water, stir it into the soup, keep stirring for a couple minutes and see how thick it gets. If it's not at the consistency you want after 5-7 minutes, add a bit more until you achieve the desired consistency.

Thanks! I figured there was something I needed to do to thicken it, I just wasn't sure what!

My best crock pot advice is to put in WAY less liquid than one would think. The slow cooking makes lots of steam and your dish will be very very liquidy. When I make a brisket I put in a bottle of BBQ sauce and nothing else, the liquid produced from the steam is amazing, you wouldn't think it.

I love my crock pot, and so does this girl, she posts a lot of good recipes
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

If you're slow cooking it, it's best to wait until the end to add cornstarch/flour, especially as you have potatoes in there. You might find that the potato starch thickens it up enough.

I love my crock pot, and so does this girl, she posts a lot of good recipes
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

I have her blog on my RSS feed, I love it so much. 

If you're slow cooking it, it's best to wait until the end to add cornstarch/flour, especially as you have potatoes in there. You might find that the potato starch thickens it up enough.

Good idea!