Lentil soup in the crock pot is an economical and healthy way to fill up empty tummies at dinner time. If you don’t have a crock pot or slow cooker, you can make the lentil soup on the stovetop.
Bump up the flavor and heartiness of lentil soup with chicken or turkey meatballs. Ground chicken is inexpensive. You can find it at most supermarkets, and if you watch sales and markdowns you'll pay less than $2 per pound for it. No ground chicken? Use ground turkey or ground beef instead.
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Ground chicken is on sale at Budwey’s Markets this week (January 2 through January 7, 2012)
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Check out the delicious slideshow of crock pot lentil soup with chicken meatballs
The best part of making lentil soup in the slow cooker is that the soup will be waiting for you when you get home from a busy day at work and/or running errands. Make the meatballs in advance and just add them when you get home.
Lentil soup with chicken meatballs
Ingredients for lentil soup in the crock pot:
- 1/2 pound dried brown lentils, rinsed and picked over
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 2 cloves finely minced garlic
- 1 cup finely diced carrots
- 1 cup finely diced celery
- 4 to 6 quarts vegetable broth or have vegetable broth and half water. There should be about 1 to 2-inches of space left in crockpot or slow cooker. You may need to check the soup a couple times while cooking and add a little more water. Soup shouldn't be too thick or too thin
- salt and pepper, to taste
Ingredients for chicken meatballs:
- 1/2 pound ground chicken
- 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 to 1 tsp. garlic powder
Directions for the lentil soup in the slow cooker:
- In 6-quart or larger crockpot or slow cooker, add vegetable broth, lentils, garlic, onion, carrots and celery.
- Cover and cook on LOW 6 to 8 hours.
Directions for the chicken meatballs:
- In large bowl mix together ground chicken, bread crumbs, cheese and garlic powder until well blended. Make meatballs using mixture (make them any size you like, I prefer to make them medium-small and I get about 25 to 30 out of the half pound of ground chicken).
- In large sauté pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, brown chicken meatballs until cooked through.
- Add a little water to the pan (1 to 2 Tbsp.), reduce heat to LOW, cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Add another 1 to 2 Tbsp. of water, cover and simmer on low another 5 minutes.
- Repeat this step 2 more times until chicken meatballs have acquired a nice browned look to them.
- Remove meatballs to a container with a tight fitting lid, cool and refrigerate until ready to use.
- When soup has about 30 minutes left to cook, give it a stir and add the meatballs. Cover and cook on HIGH for the last 30 minutes.
- Yield: about 10 to 12 two cup servings
Rachael's Recipe Notes:
- You can use lean ground beef or turkey in place of the ground chicken. I just happened to find ground chicken on sale for less than $1 per pound and stocked up. If you want to make this a vegan/vegetarian soup, either omit the meat all together or substitute reconstituted TVP or soy crumbles for the ground chicken. Substitute vegan cheese for the Parmesan cheese.
- This is also delicious is you add a half package chopped spinach that has been thawed and all the water squeezed out. Add the spinach, cook soup on HIGH 30 minutes, then add meatballs and cook another 30 minutes on HIGH. The frozen spinach adds extra nutrition for pennies.
- Serve with a green salad tossed with homemade dressing, and a loaf of bread or homemade rolls. Fresh fruit can serve as a healthy dessert. This week (January 2 through January 7, 2012) you’ll find pears and ruby red grapefruits on sale Budwey’s Markets.
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