Crockpot Lentils and Escarole Soup

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I’m not sure about you, but after 6 colds, 4 snow storms, and 2 polar vortexes’ later, I can officially say “I AM DONE WITH WINTER!”

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, good ol’ Phil called for another 6 weeks of winter. Thanks a lot, Phil!

I sincerely hope he is in some kind of   under-ground hog protection program by spring. I’m pretty sure some frozen New Yorkers might be looking for him once they thaw out!

In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m not a huge fan of the cold. I love living in New York, but I could do without below freezing wind chills, and pretty much any form of frozen precipitation that occurs after December 25th.   

Even though I desperately miss spring/summer, I did find one good thing about this winter – using my crockpot. I have been busy cooking and experimenting with some traditional comfort foods using it. One of the dishes I’ve been testing is Lentils. I was skeptical with this dish at first because lentils are delicate. If you boil them to rapidly they split apart.  Cook them too long and they get too soft. Personally, I have made both these mistakes before. The first time I made them in the slow cooker, I was so pleased to see that they actually cooked to perfection.

I’ve done this several times now and  gotten the same results.  The one disclaimer I will make, however, is that I use Italian Lentils. They are a touch smaller than other lentils. You might need to adjust cooking time with larger lentils.

In this recipe I added one of my favorites – escarole.  You could also use spinach. Whichever you choose, I definitely would not add the greens until the final hour of cooking .

I just Love how this dish comes out. The thing I love most about this is the “set it and forget it” concept for those busy days. Whether you give your favorite lentil recipe a try or use mine below, cook them in the crockpot and let me know what you think.

Crockpot Lentils with Escarolee

Slow cooked lentils with escarole

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 8 hours hrs

Total Time 8 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 cup lentils*
• 5 cups water - more if needed chicken or vegetable stock
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 bouillon cube **
• Salt and pepper to taste *
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 tablespoon tablespoons of olve oil + 1divided
• 1/2 cup of diced tomatoes with juice
• 4 cups of chopped escarole***

Instructions

 

• Rinse and pick through lentils.
• Add lentils onion, 3 cloves crushed garlic, diced tomatoes, bouillon and bay leaf to crockpot with 2 tablespoons olive oil.
• Put crockpot on low for 7 hours.
• Saute escarole in a pan with 1 crushed garlic clove and remaining olive oil for aprox. 3-4 mins. Gently season with salt and pepper if desired.
• Put escarole in the crockpot, cover and cook on high for another hour or until done.

Notes

*This recipe was tested with Italian lentils which are smaller in size.
**If you use Chicken stock you will not need to use the bouillon.
***You can substitute spinach for escarole.

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