Meatless Mondays – Crockpot Lentil Soup

What is the difference between a crockpot and a slow-cooker?? Are they two words for the same item? I’m not really sure why this question just popped into my head.

I’ve been wanting to use mine for a while now, and since I’m feeling in a soup state of mind lentil soup sounded tasty!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound rinsed lentils
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 tablespoon crushed garlic (or 2 cloves fresh garlic minced)
• 2 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or you can use canned tomatoes with liquid and chopped)
• 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cups chopped fresh cauliflower (or 2 large carrots sliced)
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 2 small peppers chopped (or 1 bell pepper chopped)
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley (or 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley)
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground marjoram
• 1/8 teaspoon dried leaf sage
• 1/8 teaspoon dried leaf thyme

Directions:

After all the chopping, slicing, mincing and measuring there’s really only 1 thing left to do:

1. Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on the LOW setting for 5 to 6 hours or the HIGH setting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

All the chopped items in the crock pot.

Vegetable broth added

(If broth gets low, you can add more to make this dish more “soup” like and less “stew” like.)

here's the brand of vegetable broth I used

When you’re close to being ready to eat, I’d recommend popping in a nice fresh baguette or sourdough loaf into the oven about 10 minutes. Nice toasty bread and this soup. YUM!

Enjoy,
~ Lita