Lentil soup with kale. Easy and slow-cooker or crock-pot friendly. Do we really need to say anything else?
Lentil Soup with Kale
Special Equipment: Slow cooker with a minimum 4-quart (3.8 liter) capacity
Ingredients
Directions
In a 4-quart or larger slow cooker set on high, pour in the vegetable stock, cover, and heat until warm, about 15 minutes.
In a medium sauté pan set over medium heat, warm the olive oil until it begins to shimmer, about 2 minutes. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until translucent, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the carrot and celery and cook until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes longer. Add the thyme, paprika, and coriander, stir well, and transfer the mixture to the slow cooker.
Rinse the lentils in a fine-mesh sieve under cold running water. Add them to the slow cooker. Stir in 2 teaspoons salt or to taste, cover with the slow cooker lid, and cook on the high setting until the lentils are tender and the flavors have melded, 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Remove the thyme sprigs. Use an immersion blender to quickly and partially blitz the soup a bit to make it a little smoother and bring it together. (Alternatively, using a ladle to transfer 1 cup of the soup to a blender, let it cool slightly, and purée it. Then return the purée to the slow cooker.)
In a large skillet set over medium-high heat, melt the butter. When the butter bubbles and froths, add the kale and cook, stirring until it has wilted, 2 to 3 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and add the kale to the soup. Stir in the lemon zest and sherry vinegar and season to taste with salt. To serve, garnish each bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of parsley.
Recipe Testers' Reviews
We LOVED this soup! It was easy to make, the ingredients weren't too unusual or difficult to find, and the finished product was very good. In fact, much better than we expected. I pretty much followed the recipe as written with minor change—I didn't use butter or cream to keep the dish vegan-friendly. I used store-bought vegetable broth. The addition of the lemon zest and then sprinkling with the parsley reminded me of Italian gremolata. I think people might be tempted to leave it out but don't. It makes the dish. Also, because there seem to be a number of recipes using sherry vinegar lately, I sprung for the good stuff and WOW. This may be my new favorite ingredient. Certainly worth the extra bucks. I used more of the vinegar than is suggested in the recipe and it was great. Personally, I'd add half again as much kale and vegetables to balance the lentils. My shallots cooked down in a minute—half the time the recipe said otherwise timing was fine. My vegetable stock was salted so I didn't add any salt.
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Joel Jenkins
This lentil soup with kale is a pretty easy soup to make and is incredibly flavorful. I think the amount of time it takes in the slow cooker really benefits the flavor profile. My broth wasn't even remotely warm after 15 minutes in the slow cooker but I don't feel like that mattered in the end. We had some nice kale at the farmers market. It is important to emphasize the cut on the kale, otherwise, I think the pieces would be hard to eat if they were any larger.