OK, this was named the best soup I have ever made by my husband, so then I had to recreate and write it down. It all started with getting a really great deal on some dried lentils at Whole Foods, a recipe I saw on Monday Meal Preps freezer meals (do you guys follow her on Instagram?) and then completely making it kid friendly for you guys. In this case kid friendly meant I used my Vitamix to mince up the squash, onion, celery and garlic (mainly because Zoe is so crazy pants about texture these days and O'Neal refuses to eat pieces of onion.).
And since this isn't a detox soup for us, I threw in organic chicken sausage (which was so great with the rest of the flavors) and I will say the homemade bone broth made a HUGE difference when I made it the first time but store bought works too. This isn't the chicken sausage I used the first time ( I totally guilty of buying whatever organic, low sugar sausage I see on the shelves!).
It honestly is not cute to photograph but it gets better as left overs and this makes a pretty big batch so I would say freeze half for a busy nights dinner. Our freezer is tiny so I'll be putting into a ziplock bag to make room.
And the instant pot sourdough bread was not a complete home run but I lathered up a piece with the lentils and gosh it was relish, because carbs make everything better!
INGREDIENTS
2-3 cups chopped Butternut Squash (fresh or frozen work)
2 cups of chopped celery & yellow onion (carrots too if you'd like)
1 pound Dried Green Lentils
1 package of organic chicken sausage (any kind of sausage would work in this recipe!)
1 tbsp sea salt (less if you used regular sodium bone broth)
1 tbsp sweet paprika
4 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning or herbes de Provence
2 tsp dried sage
2 tsp cumin
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (this helps the lentils from going into MUSH factor).
(you can also add 1 cup of finely chopped kale or spinach to this at the end or blend it in with the squash)
RECIPE
I mince up all the herbs & seasoning, garlic, squash, celery and onion in my Vitamin (pricey but I use it every day so I think price per use makes it worth it!) until it's very minced. You can toss in the kale or spinach or any other veggies here too.
Then I placed it all in the Instant Pot. (this post has lots of tips if you are new to the IP game).
For the Instant Pot
I like to do 20 minutes and then natural release ( about 10 more minutes).
Probably about the same if you have everything uncooked and frozen.
Cooked and frozen, I would do 5 minutes and natural release.
Recipe for slow cooker.
all ingredients in the cooker and 6 hours on high!
DO NOT FORGET the vinegar or you'll have mush. or in other words the lentils fall apart, By blending the squash and veggies you have a thick soup with no cream! Yay to us on WW!
Like I said you can freeze the cooked soup and easily drop back the frozen batch into the instant pot for 5 minutes to warm up on a busy night.
Or you can freeze half off the uncooked ingredients (minus the broth, which you would add when cooking) and make fresh whatever night you want. Or third and final option, half the ingredients listed above and only whip up half of this deliciousness. But this mama needs the leftovers or back up meal in the freezer!
Looking for a veg friendly dish, omit the sausage and use organic low sodium vegetable broth. I can't imagine it not tasting relish.
This is the perfect blend of Fall flavors and easily on a monthly rotation here until spring! I hope you love as much as the hung did. Happy almost Friday!
xoxox
Natalie
Posting a little roundup of Halloween costumes, Friday Favorites, Tips we've gotten to staying healthy, and my Weight Watchers Update post in the next few days so stay tuned and subscribe. Or share with a friends!!