I wasn’t sure what to make for dinner. I didn’t feel like beef or chicken, and I was tired. I was so tired that I narrowed my dinner choice to anything that would involve my trusty crockpot. I remembered that I had lentils in the pantry and immediately thought of this recipe.
This is an excellent soup that totally works for the crockpot. My friend Erica initially gave me the recipe and then I also found one on Allrecipe.com – this variation is a combination of the two with my two cents thrown in. It is excellent and makes a ton. Dave and my parents loved it, as well as Ajax, who even enjoyed the lentils.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage (use 1 lb of sausage)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 stalk celery, finely chopped (I omitted this, only because I didn’t have it on hand)
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (I have chopped garlic and just tossed in a bit, no where near 1 tbl)
- 1 lb dry lentils, rinsed (one bag)
- 1 cup shredded carrot (I let Ajax toss in a dozen or so baby carrots, he helped)
- 8 cups water (I only added about 3 cups of water)
- 2 cans chicken broth (I used veggie as I was out of chicken)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (I used seasoned Italian tomatoes w/ basil, oregano, etc)
- 1 can of RoTel tomatoes with green chilies
- 2 bay leaves (I actually forgot to add the bay leaves, opps)
- Seasonings to taste- salt, black pepper, cumin, paprika, basil, powdered mustard, red pepper flakes… whatever
- Fresh spinach (washed, cut up), about three big handfuls, I didn’t measure
Directions
- Place sausage in a large pot. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Add onion, celery and chopped garlic, and sauté until tender and translucent. Stir in lentils, carrot, water, chicken broth and tomatoes. Season with garlic powder, parsley, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, basil, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover, and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until lentils are tender.
- Stir in pasta, and cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until pasta is tender. (The original recipe called for pasta, I didn’t add pasta).
- Basically – I threw everything into the crockpot and stirred it up. I mashed up the sausage, breaking it up a bit. I cooked it on low for about 6 hours, maybe a little less. Toward the end of the cook time I threw in the can of tomatoes with green chilies for some zing. Although this is a crockpot meal, I found you have to kind of watch this soup so that it doesn’t get too dry. This, however, may just be a quirk of my crockpot which runs super hot even on low. I served this with tostitos.
