Moroccan Lentil Soup

Jason left for a ski trip with his boyz last night. I was invited, but didn't want to infringe on the male bonding, and I've never been skiing before and figure someday I will take a class somewhere, but not this weekend. They totally got the hook-up though, because the sister of one of the guys works at the ski resort and got them free lift tickets and ski rentals.

I figured that since Jason was out having fun, I would invite some ladies over for a craft night. That craft night turned into dinner and crafts and I made the following soup from my favorite site A Year of Crockpotting.*

Moroccan Lentil Soup
--1 cup dried lentils (NOTE: I used 1 1/2 cups because I wanted more lentily goodness)
--1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
(NOTE: 1) I prefer hydrated beans to canned because they have less sodium and are ridiculously inexpensive. 2) I didn't have any hydrated garbanzos and pintos BUT I had just cooked up some blacks beans a couple of nights before. To substitute for the 2 cans of beans, I used 3 cups of home-cooked black beans.)
--1 onion, chopped
--2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
--1/2 cup chopped celery
--1/2 cup chopped carrots
--28 oz can of diced tomatoes (and juice)
--4 cups vegetable broth
--1 1/2 tsp garam masala
--1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
--1/2 tsp cumin
--1/4 tsp nutmeg
--1/4 tsp cinnamon
--1 inch ginger, peeled and grated (NOTE: I didn't have any fresh ginger. Oh the shame! I used about 1/2 tsp ground ginger and I think the flavor blended well. I do love fresh ginger, though, so I'll get some in time for the next time I make this)

Chop up all of your vegetables and add them to the crock pot. If you are rushed in the morning, consider chopping the vegetables at night---it took me longer than I wanted it to (NOTE: I am a big fan of prepping all my veggies the night before, putting them all together in a tupperware in the fridge, and just dumping them into the crock pot the next day). Drain and rinse off the beans, add to the pot. Add the dried lentils. Grate your ginger, and add it along with the dried spices. Stir in the vegetable broth and tomatoes.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Soup tastes best the longer you cook it, and it is even better the next day.

Before serving, use an immersible blender and pulse to blend some of the vegetables and beans together. This isn't necessary, but it really improves the texture of the soup and melds the flavors nicely. (NOTE: I don't have an immersible blender, and serving this chunky worked great)


The original recipe this was based on included some ground cardamom, and next time maybe I'll add that in as well. As it was, the flavors in this were outstanding. I got home from work about an hour before anyone came over and the aroma was driving me crazy. I think everyone at my house last night gives this soup two thumbs up.

Jason was kind of concerned when he saw me prepping the crock pot yesterday morning that he was going to miss out on something awesome. I assured him I would cook it again if it was good. Not only is it good, but it's also amazingly cheap because all it has in it are beans and some veggies and spices. And it makes a lot. This is going into regular crock pot rotation.

* I have to admit, I'm kind of sad the year is over. There are literally hundreds of her recipes that I haven't tried yet, but I can't help but hope she keeps putting out more. The thing I love is that they're not the standard type of crock pot recipes. She gets creative and uses good ingredients and fabulous spices.