Slow Cooker Recipe Greek Lentil Soup with Tomatoes, Spinach, and Feta
 

I'm posting this in the SBD Phase 1 Slow Cooker section, as the soup was that good. Kalyn's Kitchen Slow Cooker Recipe for Vegetarian Greek Lentil Soup with Tomatoes, Spinach, and Feta, from her Month of Phase 1 recipes. It was so easy - it didn't require sauteing the onions or celery first, it's just dumped in together, cooked about 4-5 hours on High. I followed her recipe almost exactly, except I didn't have all the Greek herbs (I used a homemade dried Italian herb mix), I used water + "Better Than Bouillon" for the stock, and I forgot the lemon juice at the end. Also I didn't add the spinach to the soup, I just put a bunch of chopped spinach in each bowl and poured the piping hot soup over it to wilt it. Here is her recipe:

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Greek Lentil Soup with Tomatoes, Spinach, and Feta
(Makes about 8 servings; recipe inspired by Greek Lentils in the American Heart Association Healthy Slow Cooker Cookbook.)

Ingredients:
2 cups brown lentils (washed and picked over if needed)
8 cups vegetable or chicken stock (or more)
1 medium onion, diced small
1 cup chopped celery, chopped into fairly small pieces
1 T Greek Seasoning (I use The Spice House Greektown Billygoat Seasoning, but there are a few good brands.)
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. dried oregano (preferably Greek or Turkish oregano)
1 T minced garlic
fresh-ground black pepper to taste
1 can (14.5 oz.) petite diced tomatoes with juice
1 bunch spinach leaves, stems cut off, chopped and washed
2 T fresh-squeezed lemon juice (or a little less if you're not that into lemon)
crumbled Feta Cheese for serving (optional, but good)


Chop onions and celery and measure 2 cups brown lentils. (Do this the night before and store in the fridge in a Ziploc bag if you want to get this into the slow cooker quickly in the morning.)

Put the lentils, onions, celery, vegetable or chicken stock, Greek Seasoning, dried thyme, dried oregano, minced garlic, black pepper, and canned tomatoes with juice into the slow cooker. Cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for 8-9 hours, or until the lentils are as softened as you'd like them. (Cooking time will partly depend on how fresh your lentils are; lentils that have been on the pantry or store shelf for a while will take a little longer to cook.)

When the lentils are softened as much as you'd like, chop the spinach and wash in salad spinner if needed. Add spinach and lemon juice to the soup, turn slow cooker to high if you were cooking on low, and cook about 30 minutes more. (A little longer won't hurt, but the longer you cook the spinach the darker green it will get. Add another cup or two of stock at this point if the soup seems thicker than you'd like.) Serve soup hot, with a tablespoon or two of crumbled Feta sprinkled on each serving if desired.

I made this recently too. I think your way of adding spinach would be an improvement since it gets rather wilted for the leftovers; I was coincidentally just suggesting something like that to my husband today. I didn't use feta since we didn't have any.