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.

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

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