A few weeks ago, my friend Catherine McCord sent me a copy of her new cookbook, Weelicious. I met Catherine at the BlogHer Conference in Seattle this past summer. I immediately knew she was destined for great things. She is passionate about her blog, and she’s really dedicated herself to creating healthy food options for busy families on the go. Catherine’s site Weelicious is super successful, and I’m sure her new cookbook will be, too. It’s full of quick, healthy, kid-friendly recipes and cooking tips. It’s not a kosher cookbook, but it does have lots of options for those who keep kosher. Busy families will love this book, it’s full of fun and easy ideas to nourish your family.
When the weather begins cooling down and the skies are overcast, there’s nothing quite like a slow cooker meal to warm the tummy and comfort the spirit. I adapted the following recipe from Catherine’s “Slow-Cooker Lentil Veggie Stew” in the Weelicious cookbook. The original recipe is a great base to work from. I decided to spice it up a bit– which little kid mouths might not appreciate, but in our family everything gets the spicy treatment! I added cumin, black pepper, and cayenne to the mix. I also threw in some cauliflower to add some texture and bulk to the soup, while keeping things low cal. Catherine suggests topping the stew with plain yogurt, herbed goat cheese, feta, crème fraîche, or grated Parmesan. We stirred in some Greek yogurt and lowfat sour cream because it’s what we had on hand. Both were terrific, they added a nice creamy touch to the broth. Obviously you can leave the dairy products out to keep the stew vegan or pareve. I also threw in a few seasoned breadcrumbs, they sopped up the soup and tasted awesome. On its own, the stew is simple, natural comfort food– gluten free, low fat, low calorie, and vegan. Good for the body, good for the soul. What could be better?
I have two Weelicious cookbooks to give away this week! Enter to win your own copy by leaving a comment below, along with a valid email address, letting me know the answer to this question:
What was your favorite meal when you were a kid?
All entrants will be subscribed to my weekly newsletter (unless you are already subscribed). Two winners will be chosen at random and notified via email. Contest ends at 5:00pm PST on Friday, October 12, 2012.
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CONTEST ENDED. Congrats to Toni and Mary Ann!
New giveaway posting soon.
Learn more about the Weelicious cookbook, and buy your own copy – click here.
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Slow Cooker Lentil Cauliflower Stew
Ingredients
- 16 ounces dried lentils
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups of onion)
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 pound cauliflower, chopped into very small florets
- 2 leeks, white and green parts only, halved, washed carefully, and chopped)
- 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (very spicy-- add 1/4 tsp or less for a milder flavor)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 8 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- 32 ounces diced tomatoes with juice (1 large can)
- 2 cups chopped kale or Swiss chard
Optional Toppings
- Plain yogurt, herbed goat cheese, feta, crème fraîche, grated Parmesan, Greek yogurt or lowfat sour cream
NOTES
Instructions
- Sort the lentils, discarding any stones or impurities. Rinse the lentils in a wire mesh strainer.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion for about 4 minutes, till softened. Add the chopped garlic and saute for another minute.
- Pour the softened onions and garlic into the slow cooker and add the remaining ingredients (minus toppings).Cover the slow cooker and turn heat to high. Set timer to 6 hours on high, or 8 hours on low, until the lentils are tender.
- Serve hot with your choice of toppings.
Nutrition
Thank you so much for this recipe! It was so easy to make, and so so delicious. My legume-hating husband raved about it, and a friend of mine who is a wonderful cook also loved it and asked for the recipe. Can’t wait to try more recipes. 🙂
I actually made this unlike many of the reviews here and I can honestly say it was delicious! My whole family loved it and it will go into our stack of great meal recipes to make again and again. Thanks
I want to be sure the lentils will cook, so could you tell me what power is your slow cooker? My (UK) slow cooker is 105 W on low, 135 W on high.
Hi Hengist, I just checked and my slow cooker says 320 W. I’m not sure how many watts are used on low vs. high, though.
Thank you for this recipe! Was very excited to try and had it simmering on low for 9 hours last night. Unfortunately the lentils are still not tender – I’ve had this problem before and remembered that tomatoes may affect the beans’ ability to soften. Any advice? I turned it to high and am hoping they’ll soften eventually…
Hi Rachel, that is interesting. It’s not an issue I’ve run into personally. Hope they did end up softening…
I have had this trouble with recipes. Usually recipes remedy this by address by tomatoes in the last 30-90 minutes of cooking. There are also two different schools of thought on whether salt helps or hurts the softening of some legumes. I sometimes soak legumes after rinsing until they are ready to be cooked. If I soak, I add less water/liquid than the recipe calls for. The longer they soak (absorb water,) the less liquid is needed in the recipe.
Why is the prep time listed as 15 hours 45 minutes??
To me this should say about 15 minutes.
Hi Cara– sorry about that. My recipe software went through an update recently and what used to be four fields were reduced to two, making hours look like minutes. I’ve corrected the issue on this post. Have to go check others now!
This is one of the best recipes that I’ve ever made! Perfect for a busy, broke graduate student 🙂 Question though: I’ve easily got about 12 servings worth left over, so I was wondering if you’ve tried freezing and un-thawing this? How would you go about doing that, and is it good after? Thank you so so much for any help!
Also, though I know this is super old and I won’t be in the contest, I’ll answer the question for fun: my mom’s flanken soup. Yummy!
Elyse I’ve never tried freezing this but my guess is it will freeze quite well. So happy you liked it!
I’ve made this lots of times – always freezes well and no troubles thawing. Sometimes I add a little more broth to get it going, but tastes great.
Thanks for the recipe 🙂 This family of two adults and three kids all love it! It’s a regular in our busy, active, veg household. I love, love how comforting a meal it is, and how incredibly fast and easy it is (and versatile). Thanks!
Flavorful and healthy meal. The only negative is that it takes way longer than 15 minutes to prepare. I don’t have a sous chef or food processor, so washing and chopping all 6 vegetables and rinsing the lentils takes time, but it was worth the 45 minutes for the end result!
Great point JMeghji, this prep time was written with a food processor in mind. I will adjust the timing. Glad you enjoyed it!
I made this today and it was a hit with husband and 2 kids (13 and 11.) Stirred in yogurt and added chopped cilantro when serving. Added side of buttered bread. So good! I used Real Salt and would probably cut back on it next time. It makes things saltier than standard table salt. Thanks for the wonderful and healthy recipe!
Hello. This soup looks amazing. Just wondering what the calorie and salt content per serving is.
Thanks,
Maureen
Hi Maureen, unfortunately I do not offer calorie counts on my recipes, but you can use one of the many calorie calculators online to determine nutritional information.
I’m a bit late with an answer, but I didn’t make any changes to recipe and I came up with 308 calories per serving, total 8 servings
Does this freeze well?
I made this stew last night.. it was delicious. Thanks for posting the recipe.
Glad you liked it Ajit!
The ingredients here were intriguing so I just had to try. I added a whole 10oz bag of organic, prewashed kale, so more than called for. I also used crushed tomatos and needed a few more so threw in a 14oz can of diced.
My changes: MORE cayenne – not hot enough pour moi! I might also add some cumin to make it interesting. I think a whole head of garlic would be fun too. I left it for 6 hrs on high and might like it a little “soupier” but nonetheless it’s a great recipe!
Glad you liked it Andrea!
Terrible and watery. This slow cooker meal ruined dinner and many future lunches.
Sorry to hear that meansoybean. Perhaps your slow cooker’s low setting doesn’t get as hot as others? Some have found it thick and actually needed to thin it a bit with extra liquid after cooking. It certainly shouldn’t be watery. You could simmer it on the stove to help the liquid reduce more, and add spices to taste if you feel it needs more flavor. Beyond that, you haven’t given many details, so I can’t really be of help. Better luck next time.
This is the very first meal that I made in my new slow cooker and it was fantastic! I made very few substitutions (both stores we went to were out of leeks, and my boyfriend doesn’t trust food without meat in it so I added chicken) and it’s definitely going into my file of “recipes I will make all the time.” Thank you!
Oh I forgot to say that for the Pressure cooker I used only 6 cups of broth since there would not be evaporation time and it worked out to a nice thick stew .
worked wonderful in my instantpot Pressure cooker and only took 30 min. to cook YUMM served it with Garlic Naan Bread
I am not normally a fan of vegetarian recipes and always feel the need to throw in some bacon or pancetta to add flavor. This recipe, however, was wonderful just as it was! With a little dollop of creme fraiche on top, it was just perfect! Thanks for the great recipe.
Hi!
How do you make a vegetable broth? Can you share a recipe for it?
Thanks,
Joe
Help…made this recipe and not a big fan. Found it a little bit bland. Also found out I was not a big fan of cooked celery and kale, is there a substitute? Thanks for getting me to try something new.