If you are subscribed to my Facebook updates, you know that my husband is unemployed again temporarily. We are exclusively living off of our food storage until things change. We’ve tightened down everything we can on the ship and I’m using bone broth more than ever to help stretch the meals.
I have found that a meatless meal must be very substantial and fatty in order to fill everyone up until breakfast the next morning. That’s impossible to achieve by a soup-only meal. When they don’t get enough food in calories and volume at dinner, they tend to get up very early in the morning, very hungry.
So instead we have our meatless meal at lunch, if we don’t have any leftovers to use. For dinner, we have soup as a starter every night, then have a main meal. This keeps the bellies full overnight and still allows me to stretch the meal and keep the budget down. Kids don’t eat as much meat when they’ve already had a cup of soup.
Cheap beans such as lentils are great budget-stretchers, too. I find my kids are very accepting of lentils when they’re mixed into a soup.
I do require that my children finish their soup before they eat the main meal, however I always try to make sure the soups I’m serving are ones they like and enjoy. Putting a small amount of bacon into this soup convinced them to eat it without any reminders from me.
From the Menu Mailer
4-6 cups chicken stock
2 onions, diced
1 lb diced, cooked bacon or 2 cups diced, cooked ham, optional
3 carrots, diced
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp salt, if not using pork
¾ tsp sage
¼ tsp pepper
1 lb dried lentils
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 bay leaf
Any other veggies you have on hand, diced
Combine all ingredients in a crock-pot and cook on low 3-4 hours or until lentils are tender. Remove the bay leaf before serving.
Can substitute any cooked meat for the pork or omit it entirely, and substitute thyme or another dried herb or herb combination for the rosemary. Can substitute other stocks for the chicken.
Shared at Sunday Night Soup Night.
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This is simmering away as I write. Smells delicious! Thanks for a great meal idea!
jennie, please let me know how your family likes it!
KerryAnn Foster recently posted..The Benefits of Food Storage: Sweet and Sour Roast
I just discovered your blog, what a great resource. We are swamped right now with bills… our well pump broke on Saturday ($$$), as soon as we pay it all off, I will order your book! 🙂
Mary
This is a lovely easy soup with ingredients from the pantry. I love lentils and love to see new ways to use them in soups. I’d make it vegetarian by adding a chipotle chile for a smoky flavor.
Debra recently posted..The Soup Project: 50 soups and 10 things I learned from making them
I love how simple this soup it, but it sounds like it would be really tasty, and very nourishing. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with Sunday Night Soup Night! I’ll be hosting weekly through fall and winter, so I’d love to see you again with your next soup/stock/chowder recipe.
Debbie @ Easy Natural Food recently posted..Creamy Tomato, Sausage and Kale Soup
I’m making this recipe for the second time. The first time I followed the recipe pretty much as it is eliminating the sage. My kids loved it. So yesterday I made a double batch in my Nesco roaster and it has not gone well. The lentils don’t seem cooked. I left it on slow cook all night and now it is not pretty, kind of brownish green, and I still don’t think the lentils are cooked. My 8 year old tried it and said it taste great but doesn’t look so good. The difference are…used nesco instead of crockpot and double recipe. Thoughts?
And I did soak the lentils overnight. I didn’t do that for the first batch.
I’ve had similar issues with the Nesco roaster. It has to do with where the heat is coming from and how much surface exposure the item has. 🙁 I find with the Nesco, it needs to be around 2/3 full in order to not have the color change issues.
For the white bean soup I use a big stainless steal pot on the stove as my crockpot can’t fit enough. Maybe that would be better for this recipe. What do you think?
Both my kids really like this recipe! Usually one likes something and the other doesn’t. One likes it with a little creme fraiche the other just the way it is.
Thanks,
Sheena
Yes, doing it on the stove would absolutely be an option. I’m glad they like it! My kids enjoy it, too.