The Island of Misfit Toys

Shout out to anyone who recognizes this title (and picture).  Too bad VHS tape players are basically extinct because this is a classic as far as I’m concerned. 

And now, may I present to you, our island of misfit toys…

Sad, but true, these do not get used often enough.  I have no excuse.  It’s something I’m pretty ashamed to admit actually.  So I hereby vow to use both the slow cooker and the juicer once a week.  Do we have a deal?  Good. 

The inspiration for this crock-pot soup came from here.  All I did was google “vegan slow cooker recipes” and of all the resources that came up, Savvy Vegetarian has a huge index of recipes that all looked mighty fine.

I soaked the lentils in water overnight. 

With a sprig of rosemary and a bay leaf.

The next day the lentils looked like this.

 

All fat and happy after a night of soaking. 

 

I then got to work with the rest of the ingredients.

Crock-pot Veggie Lentil Soup

Spices (in no order and unmeasured): rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, cayenne peppers, ginger, garlic gold, ginger, paprika, cumin, TJ’s 21 season salute, parsley (the rosemary and thyme were fresh from my “garden” but the rest were dried spices)

Veggies: carrots, butternut squash, fingerling potatoes, celery, diced tomatoes (with liquid)

Other: whole wheat elbow macaroni, vegetable broth

*I measured nothing and just made sure to add enough liquid so that all the ingredients were submerged.

For the original recipe, you can click on the link above (from Savvy Vegetarian), but I made numerous changes and I’ll tell you why in a sec.

But first, let me show you a new item that I’m kinda in love with.  These adorable organic fingerling potatoes were from Purity Organic (a farm in SF) and I bought them in WF.  I had no idea there were different varieties of fingerling potatoes, but there are, and so I chose the ones with the funniest name – Russian Banana.  Maturity of a 10 year old.  That’s me.  

The recipe said to add various ingredients at different points throughout the cooking process.  It also said to pre-cook the barley.  My response?  No and no.  I’m sorry but isn’t the advantage of the crock-pot it’s simplicity?  I thought the whole idea behind it was you throw everything in, turn it on, forget about it, and hours later you have a delicious home cooked meal with minimal effort. 

Given my rebellious ‘tude, I made a few alterations to keep the recipe on the simple side (as in fewer than two steps).  Instead of using barley, which required pre-cooking, I used whole wheat macaroni noodles.  And instead of adding the ingredients at the suggested hour marks, I ignored those directions, dumped everything in at once, and hoped for the best.

I also set it on high for 5 hours instead of low for 8 hours.  I’m such a risk taker.

 

Here’s what I learned about slow cookers:

1. They are idiot proof (throwing everything in at once made a FANTASTIC meal, so if you are worried about the timing of adding different things, don’t be).  Eff the instructions and add everything in at once.  I promise it will be (better than) ok. 

2. Veg recipes don’t require as much cooking time because the worst outcome would be al dente veggies (which is fairly impossible after 5 hours of sauna time).

3. You don’t need to pre-cook grains (the macaroni noodles – which were added uncooked – were mush in the end product).  This leads me to believe that barley could have been added uncooked and turned out perfect.

This is 4 hours into cooking.  The apartment was smelling like heaven at this point which made my rained-in workout as cruel as ever.  Imagine Jillian Michaels screaming fat burning techniques when all you want to do is follow your nose to the island of misfit toys. 

I am pretty sure you’re not supposed to open the slow cooker in the earlier phases of cooking, but I could tell it was mostly done, so I took the lid off to attempt a photography sesh and give it a stir.

Once the five hours were up, I turned it off, took a million photos, and divvyed it up in tupperware. 

It doesn’t look like much, but trust me, it was SOOO good. 

 

If I had known how incredibly simple the crock pot would be, I would have gotten on board way sooner.  The best thing was I left for work with my portion (night shift) and Kyle still had a warm home cooked meal waiting for him whenever he was ready for dinner. 

Look how much!

Scrape, scrape, scrape.  Bu-bye.

Like I said, it was a night shift night, so I packed up my eats for a (second) dinner at the hospital. 

It looks brown and blah, but don’t let the aesthetics turn you off.  Kyle texted me at work saying how good it was, and how full he felt after downing it.  And I have to agree. 

I had the soup at 11 pm and didn’t eat ANY of the rest of the things I packed.  SO. HEARTY.

I am so excited to give the Iced Gingerbread Clif bar a try, though, so it will definitely be gone in a few minutes.  I’m a sucker for the seasonal flavors and I remember reallllly liking this one last year.  If you’ve never warmed Clif bars in the microwave for a few seconds before consuming, I highly recommend. 

I’m off to get some shut eye before tonight’s night shift.  Who else has a slow cooker/crock pot?  Love it?  Or have you managed to lose it on the Island of Misfit Toys?  Tips?  Recipe ideas?