Slow Cooked Sweet Potato Soup

Sweet, zingy, hearty and filling. I started this up in the crock pot at 10am and it was ready by 6pm. It served all 5 of us piggies with seconds.

I peeled and diced into small pieces 1 large sweet potato, one half butternut pumpkin, one small carrot and two medium onions. I grated about four tablespoons of fresh ginger and chopped up four cloves of garlic. I then rinsed two cups of red lentils and picked out all the debris. I went through the spice rack and found the cumin seeds and the turmeric, salt and pepper.

I placed the sweet potato, pumpkin and carrot into the slow cooker with two cups (500ml) of vegetable stock (I use Campbell's, but you can make your own or use your fav brand) and set it to high. I then heated a good splash of vegetable oil in a frypan and added the onion, garlic, ginger and about half a teaspoon of cumin seeds and fried them gently over a low heat for a few minutes until the onions looked sweaty and the cumin and ginger smelled spicy, lastly I stirred through a tablespoon of turmeric before I added the fried onion mix to the crock pot with the vegetables.

Next I put in the rinsed red lentils and made sure they were all distributed evenly around the slow cooker, then put the lid on and went about my day. About 3 hours before serving (that would be about 3pm), I splashed in a bit of boiling water as all those lentils absorbing the stock had thickened up the soup up bit too much. Then gently with a fork I mashed up any remaining large bits of pumpkin, carrot and sweet potato. About an hour before serving I adjusted the seasonings by adding the salt and pepper to taste.

We served the soup up with crusty sourdough bread (gluten free for me) and Deb topped her soup with cheese (of course!)

Rated by the family: Most excellent.