Make It Healthy Food: Slow Cooker Lentil & Vegetable Soup
Happy Wednesday everyone! I am so excited for the #makeithealthy project headed up by the fantastic @woman-onthe-wing! She has also started a separate @make-it-healthy account to share all of the fantastic posts about living healthy. I love that she has decided to keep it broad and include healthy recipes, exercise, sustainable living, and just about any topic that has a positive way to improve our time on this planet. You can check out the introductory post with more information about it here: https://steemit.com/makeithealthy/@make-it-healthy/make-it-healthy-project-a-full-introduction-and-how-you-can-be-part-of-it
If you already follow my blog, then you know most of my posts under this tag will be food-related. ;) I have a comforting, but still easy and healthy soup recipe to share with you all today. I love soup in the colder winter months. My body craves warmer food naturally, but I also look at it as a great way to really load up on vegetables. Everyone thinks of salad as the best "health" food, but soup can essentially be made up of a lot of the same components--it's just a little bit wetter and warmer!
Besides being a great way to get lots of healthy nutrients in your body, soup is also "healthy" on your budget and great if you have limited time to devote to cooking. Many people think it's expensive to eat well, but you really do not have to spend a lot of money on fancy ingredients unless you really want to. Buying in season and picking produce that is available locally is a great way to save money on your grocery bill. Simple veggies like onions, celery, carrots and cabbage are loaded with nutrients but are usually quite inexpensive and readily available (at least in my part of the world).
I also realize some people just do not have the time to spend in the kitchen every day. I do not feel that stressing about making food is a very healthy way to live. As much as I love to cook, I just do not have the time to get in the kitchen every day. That is one of the reasons why I enjoy meal prepping so much. It gives me a few hours to do what I love at the beginning of the week, but then it also allows me to check one thing off the list to not have to stress over once the week starts getting busy. The slow cooker is a fantastic tool to make that weekly meal prep even easier. For a soup like this, you can spend about 15 minutes chopping and tossing everything in the pot, then you can literally forget about it for a few hours and do other things!
Though it is just @dksart and I in our household, I still like to make big batches of things so we have it all week. If you live alone or do not like to eat the same thing every day, feel free to cut the ingredients in half to make a smaller batch. This will also freeze well if you really want to do some future meal prep!
Slow Cooker Lentil & Vegetable Soup
Makes 8 servings
- 1 onion, peeled & chopped
- 1 large carrot, trimmed & thinly sliced
- 2 large stalks celery, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 cups green or brown lentils, picked through & rinsed
- 1 small head red cabbage, cored & roughly chopped
- 1 (28-ounce) can organic diced tomatoes with basil or 3 cups fresh chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes*
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried fennel seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 cups water or vegetable broth
- 1 lemon, zest & juice
- optional--fresh parsley and nutritional yeast for serving
Place all of your ingredients up to the lemon in a 5 to 6-quart slow cooker. Stir, then cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or until lentils are done and vegetables are softened to your liking. Remove bay leaf and mix in the lemon juice and zest.
Serve with fresh parsley and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast if desired.
*Check out @amy-goodrich's method for making these easily at home! https://steemit.com/food/@amy-goodrich/makeithealthy-how-to-make-sun-dried-tomatoes-at-home
Thanks for the mention. My hubby loves lentil soups and we have some of those tomatoes left.
Absolutely! It just worked out nicely that your recipe fit well to share! :)
Sounds good I wonder how it would be without the tomatoes as I am allergic to tomatoes
MInd you to make it for my wife as wellI would need to change a few other things as well, ONion does not agree with her
But i may use this as a base recipe and see if I can come up with somehting that works for her
Oh wow, I'm sorry you can't have any tomatoes! That's a tough one, but I'm sure you can still make it work. I'd probably add some bell peppers maybe to make up for some of the bulk and just add a little extra broth or water to make sure you have enough fluid. I like pureed pumpkin in soups, too, to add some creaminess.
My sister can't eat onions or garlic, so if I were making it for her I would use chopped fresh fennel instead of onion. Let me know if you figure out some good swaps!
Thanks, Peppers also dont work for her but Pumpkin or Butternut squash is what I was thinking
Fennel I havent thought of I will have to check the IC site and see if she can have that
You know I am a sucker for your soups and the adding lentils? Pfft! I'm in! This looks absolutely yummy! I love big batches!
I'm glad it tantalizes your taste buds my friend! :) I don't think I know how to cook a recipe that does serve less than 6! I suppose that's not a bad problem to have, though!
Looks super yummy, thanks for the recipe I will bookmark it and make something new one day @plantstoplanks be well and stay awesome and healthy
Thanks so much for checking it out! Happy to have team USA to keep meeting new people I may not otherwise come across!
Delicious! :)
Thanks dear. ;)
Oooh yummy! If you could see the weather out my window right now you'd see this recipe is perfect for warming me up! Comfort food totally necessary!
Many thanks for spreading the word about the project, and I love also that you included a link to @amy-goodrich's post. Awesome!
Well I hope you have some yummy healthy comfort food of your own to keep you cozy!
I am happy to spread the word! I definitely have a goal to get even better about sharing great stuff from everyone else! It's nice when it works out well with overlapping foodie ideas! Amy's technique with the sun-dried tomatoes fit right in. 🍅
Yummy! I love soups, I already told you this, but with this recipe you took me to a a whole new level! Congratulations dear 🌻🌸🌺👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks Maru! I'm glad there are so many other soup lovers around here! 😋
looks delicious, I like anything I can throw in a slowcooker and not have to stand over lol
Thanks! It really is such a great kitchen appliance!
This post has been deemed resteem & upvote worthy by your friendly @eastcoaststeem ran by Steemian @chelsea88
Thanks @chelsea88!!
Wow..a bowl of goodness for a gloomy day!
I made lentil soup last month, but my wasn't with red color broth!! I didn't use red cabbage, but just regular one!
lentil soup.JPG
You can never have enough different options for soup! The cabbage and 2 types of tomatoes definitely added that red color. 😀