Meatless Friday: Slow Cooker Lentil Soup

Alex Resch’s slow cooker lentil soup has just 7 ingredients and comes together quickly for a warm and comforting dinner. Download our printable recipe card!

This year, my daughters participated in a Little Flowers girls' group every Friday. The group met in the evenings on Fridays, and this meant that I needed a simple and quick go-to recipe for these nights when I would be helping out with the group. I knew that we would want to come home to something yummy, filling, and healthy, so I usually got this lentil soup going in the slow cooker to be waiting for us when we arrived home after the meeting.   

This slow cooker recipe is so simple and only requires 7 ingredients that I bet you already have on hand. It takes about 15 minutes to prep everything, and then 6 hours to cook in your slow cooker.   

It’s also easy to swap out or add different ingredients and seasonings to the soup. For example, sometimes I have a random potato lying around that I will add in, so it does not get wasted. If you don’t like tomatoes, simply substitute with 3.5 cups water or broth. I also recommend serving the soup with these quick breadsticks! 

Slow Cooker Lentil Soup  

Serves 6-8 as an entree  

Ingredients:  

½ lb dry lentils
14 oz can crushed tomatoes or canned tomato sauce
3 large carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste  

Directions:  

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker plus 1 full can (about 1.75 cups) of water. Cook on high for 6 hours.  

If you like your soup to be more brothy, add more cans of water to submerge the ingredients as desired. You can also always add more water at the end of cooking. 

Top with grated parmesan cheese if desired.