CHALLENGE #30 - SWEET POTATO - Saturday Lentil Soup

[moetushie]

I've eaten lentils my whole life, but this is the first time I've attempted lentil soup. (Dal is different, after all, and kichiri, my true food love, is different still.) It was cold! I was cold! Lentil soup is almost freakishly hearty! After eating a bowl of it, I don't think I'm able to eat anything else for a long time.



Equipment needed:
- Cutting board & knife
- Stove, pan
- Slow cooker

Ingredients:
1 lb brown lentils, washed
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion
2 jalapeños
5 cloves garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Cumin as you see fit
Couple dashes of Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute
1 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cup chopped sweet potatoes (I cut them open and found that they were the white ones -- sweet potatoes sure are full of surprises.)
2 cups broth
1-2 cups water, or as much as you think the soup needs
1 can diced tomatoes
2 chicken sausage links
1/2 cup quick-cooking farro


Method:

1. Sweat onions, jalapenos and garlic in pan. Add seasonings with abandon. Add carrots and sweet potatoes, along with the broth. Set to simmer. Cut up sausages and throw in there. Also everything else. Remember that it's Saturday, actually, and you have things to do. Turn off stove and chuck the whole thing into the slow cooker. Cook on low for eight hours or whenever you remember that you have it on.

2. After eight hours or however much time it takes to cook. Give it a stir now and then. Everything's broken down by this point and maybe the sausages weren't a good idea after all. Swapping out the chicken broth and taking out the sausages, this could be a fairly credible vegan meal. Eat for a week, or however long it takes until you're sick of lentil soup.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

I fully resemble the 'oh, argh, stick it in the slow cooker' :}. It looks very tasty all the same

[moetushie]

I think sweating the veg before throwing it in the slow cooker worked out well. But it probably would've tasted about the same either way, what with the eight hour cook time.

It is solidly good soup, with the emphasis on 'solid'. :P

[fred_mouse]

I like solid soup. 'Sticks to your insides' is the term I associate with it.

[norfolkian]

Oooh, I love the idea of putting jalapenos in lentil soup! Sounds delicious!