Soup is good food.  What could be better on a cold winter day than a good old fashioned bowl of soup?  What I love about soup is you can set it and forget it in a slow cooker for hours while you are doing other things.

Soup is a great conduit for getting in fiber from vegetables, beans, lentils, as well as tofu and nuts.  Every culture embraces soup in some form or fashion, so let’s celebrate it’s goodness.

Today, I am slow cooking split lentils and peas with carrots, garlic and shallots in chicken broth with one of my favorite spice blends, Garam marsala.  It’s a blend of coriander, black pepper, cumin, cardamom and cinnamon.

Slower Cooker Split Pea and Red Lentil Soup #recipe #nationalsoupmonth #soupisgoodfood #souprecipes #lentilsoup #splitpeasoup #ontheblog Click To Tweet

Slow Cooker Split Pea and Red Lentil Soup

Serves 8 – 10 (about 1 cup each)

Ingredients:

2 carrots, minced

1 small shallot, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes

2 cups chicken broth

6 cups water

1 cup split red lentils

1 cup split green peas

2 teaspoons tomato paste

1 Tablespoon garam masala spice blend

Salt and black pepper to taste

Optional toppings: Plain Greek-style yogurt, sriracha and/or hemp seeds

Directions:

Toss all ingredients into a slow cooker and allow to cook on low for 4 hours.

Once cooked, if you want a smooth, creamy texture, blend the soup in the slow cooker with a hand-held, immersion blender for a few minutes.  The longer you blend, the smoother it will be – and vice versa, less blending will leave the soup more chunky. Serve with a whole grain crusty bread.

Will this post help you use your slow cooker?  If so, let me know what your favorite slow cooker take-away was by tagging me @vsrnutrition on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest.  

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Enjoy eating simply,

-Vicki