Soup Swap: Mediterranean Lentil Soup with Spinach (slow cooker recipe)

Thanks to Jessica for doing the soup swap again this fall! Check out her site for lots of links to tried and true soup recipes.

 

Here's a delicious recipe from my new, favorite slow cooker vegetarian soup cookbook, 125 best Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipes. I checked out lots of vegetarian soup and slow cooker cookbooks from the library and this one was my favorite, by far.

 

Mediterranean Lentil Soup with Spinach (slow cooker recipe)

It doesn't look pretty, but it is such a delicious, thick and hearty stew that's perfect for fall and winter months.

Ingredients:
1 cup green lentils
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp cumin OR 1 tsp toasted cumin seed, crushed
zest of one lemon
1 potato, peeled and grated
6 cups of vegetable stock
8oz fresh spinach leaves
2 TBS fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Place lentils in a colander and rinse thoroughly with cold water.

Heat oil over medium heat. Cook onions, celery, and carrots, stirring until softened for about 5 minutes. Add garlic cumin and lemon zest and cook for 1 minute.  Transfer mixture to slow cooker, add lentils, shredded potato and stock.

Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. When 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.

My notes:

I just realized that I should have chopped the spinach before adding it to the soup. I just placed whole spinach leaves into the soup. It's a little hard to chew whole, cooked spinach, so I would definitely recommend chopping it first.

The book recommends toasted cumin seeds. I've tried both toasted seeds and regular cumin and the toasted, crushed seeds were definitely tastier. I was surprised that I could tell the difference, but I'd definitely stick with the toasted, crushed cumin seeds.

root vegetables

I should have posted questions about the loom and quilt sooner...you guys were so quick to answer my call for help! Thanks to Patty for coming up with the directions to the loom. And thanks to John (Quilt Dad) and Becky for directing me to the name and directions for making the block. It's called a Flying Swallow, and there are directions for making it right here.

• • •

I had some fun in the kitchen today when I set out to use up a bundle of root vegetables hanging out in our vegetable drawer this week. I usually stick to recipes closely, but this time I got a little bit creative. I roasted some turnips, carrots, onions, garlic and parsnips with some olive oil, rosemary, thyme and sage at 450 degrees for about an hour. Then I added the vegetables to  6 cups of vegetable stock and some canned whole tomatoes. Once everything was boiling, I pureed it with my immersion blender and let it simmer for a while.

The soup was delicious! It has lots of flavor and depth to it. Many thanks to Jessica for introducing me to the roasted root vegetable soup that I based this pot of soup on.

And, while I had some peeled turnips on my hands, I made up a batch of turnip fries. Melissa blogged about these fries this summer and I finally got around to making some myself. I highly modified her recipe due to lack of the spices it called for in my collection. I covered the fries in smoked paprika, aleppo pepper and a dash of turmeric. Turnips are one of my favorite vegetables and this batch of fries were really delicious.

yard sale finds

I come from a long line of thrift store and
yard sale shoppers. My grandma is the queen of bargain shopping! If I
ask her to find me some random item, she'll find it within a week.
Me, I don't usually have such luck. My aunt has the bargain shopping
gene too and she found these two fun items for me a few weeks ago.

First, an old twin-sized quilt top (complete with batting and backing fabric).
I love the intricate star pattern in these blocks. Any ideas on the
name of this pattern? I'm definitely going to be basting, quilting and
binding this top into a quilt soon.

Then, she found this weaving loom kit. She knew that I wanted to
try weaving and found this wooden rigid heddle loom (I think). The
directions are kind of mildewed shut, so I'm going to scavenge around
the internet to find some instructions for setting up the loom. (Yes,
this is another fiber project that I don't have time for, I realize).

Doll Quilt Swap

I received this lovely quilt in the mail last weekend from my swap partner, Jessica, of The Bossy Quilter. I love the design of the quilt...I've been really into circles lately, but too intimidated to try them myself. She included an adorable set of notecards, too. I will definitely be using these for correspondence soon.

Her quilting is so nicely done. She stippled in the white space and left the patterned fabric untouched. The circles really pop in real life. You can read a little bit more about how she did the quilt in her post, here.

And, isn't her tag on the back so cute? I think an embroidery machine would be a really fun tool to have.

Thanks so much for the awesome quilt, Jessica! I love it!

brick road baby quilt

I made this baby quilt a few weeks ago, but had to wait until after the shower for the big reveal. This quilt is for our friends who are having a baby boy next month. I based the colors off of their baby bedding, which is a teal, brown and green safari theme.

I knew I wanted to make a brick road quilt, so I cut out rectangular blocks (2.5"x5") and arranged them in this geometric pattern. I used 1/3 yard of each solid and then 1.5 yards of the stripes for the backing and binding. The final quilt is about 32"x38" (but I'm totally guessing because I forgot to measure it when I was finished).

6 years

Jon and I started dating six years ago today. To celebrate, we went back to the place where we became "official" and got engaged to reminisce. Six years has flown by and we're still having as much fun being together as we did in those first few months.

{before}

I had a little celebration of my own last night when I FINALLY finished knitting this afghan that's been on the needles for a year. Last winter when I was halfway through with it, I never thought I'd see the day when I would cast off the final panel and finish the afghan. (Remember, this afghan has a total of 124,080 stitches in it!)

I had a change of heart in August and picked it up again to finish what I've started. While the garter stitch does get old after a while, this is the best kind of tv knitting! I think we watched Lost, Dexter and The Wire while I knitted away on this.

{75% done}

Best of all, it's finished just in time for the cooler weather and we'll get to snuggle under this afghan all fall and winter. :)

Here are the details:

Pattern: Olive's Afghan from Knitalong
Yarn: 16 skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (love this yarn!). 215 yards per skein
Colors: Turquoise Mix, Pea Soup Mix, Fennel, Pumpkin Puree, Cyclamen
Needles: Size 7
Started September 3, 2008, finished September 18, 2009
Rav link: craftr's zig zag afghan
Previous posts: picking out the pattern, finishing strip #1, starting strip #2, two panels completed, halfway done

pinwheel baby quilt

Here's a sweet little quilt that I made for a friend of mine from high school who is expecting a boy this October. I knew that she was using traditional colors in her baby's room, so I went with baby blue and navy for this quilt.

The blocks are 4" square after sewing and the sashing is 4" wide. The final quilt is 28" x 48".

I am starting to get spoiled making smaller doll quilts and baby quilts. It's so satisfying to be able to finish up a quilt in a few hours...maybe I'm getting quilting ADD?!