Lentil stew in the slow cooker – green lentils slowly cooked with lots of vegetables

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 500 g lentils, dried, green, washed and sorted
• 4 carrots
• 2 onions
• possibly fat
• 5 m.-sized potatoes
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables (celery, parsley, carrot, leek)
• 3 tsp broth, granulated
• 300 g bacon (Gelderland twin bacon), in large cubes or strips
• 1 n. B. Pepper, from the mill
• Sugar
• Vinegar
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp mustard
• e.g. bacon rind, cuts with cartilage, etc. nicely smoked
• 1 ½ liters of water, measured

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 5 hours; Total time approx. 5 hours 30 minutes

a great stew that almost makes itself

Designed for a 6.5L slow cooker with automatic cooking – halving the amount in a 3.5L slow cooker and using the same cooking time will do. First, dice the onions into small cubes and place them in a pan to brown with a little fat (if needed). Meanwhile, chop all the other ingredients, except the bacon, into tiny pieces. The quickest way to do this is with a “crocodile”-style chopper, where you place the vegetables in and snap them shut, and the small cubes fall out at the bottom. You can also grate them coarsely with a food processor – or, if you take your time, with a good old knife. Add some of the chopped vegetables, as they come, to the pan to brown. A total of about a ladleful will be enough. Measure out one liter of water for the lentils. Place the pork rinds and some of the bacon at the bottom of the slow cooker, then add the lentils on top. When the onion/vegetable mixture starts to brown, stir in the tomato paste and mustard and fry briefly, then deglaze with the measured amount of water and remove from the heat. Let it cool slightly and then transfer to the SC. Now add all the other ingredients, except the granulated stock, to the SC, along with the remaining water and then another half a liter – you need 1.5 liters of water in total for this recipe. Once everything is in the SC, close the lid and set it on automatic for 5 hours – 6 hours works too, but then the lentils are really soft – too soft for me. Without automatic: 1 hour on HIGH and 3 hours on LOW. When the lentils are soft, stir in the granulated stock. This amount is enough for 6 hungry people without any other side dishes.