Crockpot Lentil Soup

I bought myself a crockpot over a year ago and have used it all of two times. Once was to make a recipe very similar to this, but left it cooking too long while I ran errands...and came home to burnt lentils. Burnt lentils are not yummy.

The second time was to make caramelized onions. Best thing I ever made. Check out Dorothy's post for how easy it really is. I even threw in some shallots. They're the exact opposite of burnt lentils: yummy.

So I went into this experiment with a 1-1 record of success. And since I had much photo processing and article writing to do, figured it was safest to stay home to keep an eye on the timer.

Want to torture yourself all day while the smells of wonderful flavors meld together and waft through your house? Make this soup and then stay home while it cooks.

I should have left the house. Should have taken the laptop out by the pool and soaked up some Vitamin D, at least for the middle hours. It would have been far less torturous than the constant reminder that dinner wasn't ready yet.

So I've learned my lesson there.

Before anyone points out that there are tortillas in the picture below, this is probably also a good time to confess that I cheated on my elimination challenge diet this weekend too. There was wine and pizza at my parents' house, ice cream with my niece and nephew, and chocolate somewhere in between. And then there were tortillas with my lentil soup. And you know what? Not a single headache! So apparently none of those things are at the root of my problem. Yippee!!

My crockpot is only 4 quarts, so I had to scale the recipe back a bit. Half the lentils (and in two different colors) and about half of the rest of the ingredients cooked for a total of 7 hours. 7 very looooong hours.

But damn if my house didn't smell good!

The original recipe creator suggests adding bacon or sausage. Since I'm on that special diet, I can't comment on said additions, but I imagine they would be delicious!

Only 5 more days!!

print recipe

Crockpot Lentil Soup
Adapted from Crockpot Recipes 101

Ingredients

1/4 pound each red and green, picked over and rinsed lentils1 large onion, minced3 cloves garlic, quartered2 medium carrots, grated fine2 tablespoons tomato paste2 large bay leaves1 tablespoon salt1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes2 quarts boiling water4 tablespoons olive oil4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. Put all the ingredients except for olive oil and balsamic vinegar into your crockpot. Cook on low for 5 hours.

2. At the 5 hour mark, add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and cook another 2 hours.

3. Check the soup in the last few hours and adjust the flavor as needed. I found I needed another tablespoon of vinegar for my palette.

Yield: 4 servings