Mediterranean Lentil Soup with Spinach

Mediterranean Lentil Soup with Spinach

1 cup green lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of lemon zest
1 potato, peeled and grated
6 cups of vegetable stock
8 oz fresh spinach leaves, chopped
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice


1. In a colander, rinse lentils thoroughly under cold running water.  Set aside.
2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onions, celery and carrots and cook, stirring, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, cumin and lemon zest and cook, stirring for 1 minute.  Transfer mixture to slow cooker.  Add reserved lentils, potato and stock.
3. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 6 hours, until vegetables are tender.  Add spinach and lemon juice.  Cover and cook on high for 20 minutes, until spinach is cooked and mixture is hot and bubbling.

Each recipe that I share will be rated by my family(exactly what they say!) in the "Outta 10 Report"

Brad- 6 outta 10.  Not enough seasoning, didn't like the chunks of spinach.  Likes soup that is all the same consistency, either pureed or chunks have to be all the same.  But in general, pretty good.

Krista- 6 outta 10.  Agreed not enough seasoning, needs salt and pepper.  Didn't like the lentils like this, may be would be better if the lentils were pureed before.  May be the lentils weren't cooked enough.

Alexa- 9 outta 10.  Pretty good but could have been better.

Harper- 1 outta 10.  Not good at all.

Joely- 1 gag outta 10 gags, which means she liked it.  She ate the whole bowl!

Also I made by own bread.  This started off in the bread-maker but then the power went off.  It was done mixing so I just kneed it, let it rise and baked it in the oven.  One thing I would recommend though is to make sure the whole wheat flour is still good.  I think mine may have been bad because the bread had a little bit of a bitter taste.  I bought new flour today though, so we'll retry tomorrow.  Luckily I had bread that I made yesterday that was leftover.