Slow cooker lamb and lentil soup

Slow cooker lamb and lentil soup is a tasty winter warmer dish that’s easy to prepare and delicious to eat.

The great thing about soup is that you can toss almost anything into it!

I cooked a 2kg leg of lamb in the slow cooker last week and enjoyed lamb for dinner four nights in a row, plus lamb on toast for breakfast one day.

As much as I love lamb, there’s only so much that a single guy can eat. I got to Thursday and realised that I was lambed out.

I extracted two smaller freezer bags of lamb from the big leftovers tub, and put them in the fridge for sandwiches. I’ll freeze them if not used by Sunday.

I kept the leg bone and it had some nice pieces of lamb still attached. What to do with it? Soup was the perfect solution.

I checked some online recipes and they basically confirmed what I knew; just put in whatever you like.

A good tip though was to only use half a cup of lentils and half a cup of pearl barley. Previously, I’ve overdone the lentils and it finished up like stew.

Slow cooker lamb and lentil soup ingredients

Everything is to your preference and taste:

• Lamb (as much as you like), on the bone if you can
• Celery (to taste)
• Half a cup of lentils and half a cup of pearl barley (could use split peas)
• Leek (x1)
• Garlic
• Onion (x1)
• 400g tinned tomato (or tomato paste)
• Carrots (x2)
• Chilli (I used Habanero x 2)
• Ginger
• Moroccan spice, salt and pepper
• Stock (I used one litre of chicken stock, could use beef or bone broth)
• Hot water (start with half a litre and adjust as needed)

I sautéd the vegetables , garlic and ginger in a frying pan with olive oil for a few minutes. Meanwhile, I put the lamb bone and about 250g of cooked lamb into the slow cooker with the lentils, pearl barley, chicken stock and water.

I added the sautéd vegetables, chilli, tomato, and some salt. Put the lid on, slow cook on high for one hour, then on low for seven hours.

I actually lost power for about three hours in the afternoon, but when I checked the temperature, it was still 70 degrees. I did a taste test at that point, and it was great, but lacked some heat. It was a also a little chunky.

I added some more Moroccan spice, salt and an extra chilli, and more hot water.

I’m very happy with the result. I’ll keep 2-3 bowls of slow cooker lamb and lentil soup for eating over the next few days and freeze the rest.

Slow cooker lamb and lentil soup AI

The recipes I looked at were inconsistent, so I asked AI which vegetables to add with my core ingredients of lamb, lentils, chilli, tomato, carrot and onion.

The prompt was: “I’m making lamb and lentil soup with tomato, chilli, onion and carrots. Which vegetable(s) should I add out of leek, celery, kale, fennel, and silverbeet?”

The responses were fairly consistent and all were helpful. They all recommended celery and leek, which I went with.

Fennel was held back as a personal preference in moderation, to not overwhelm the other tastes, which is fair enough.

Kale and silverbeet were both considered okay as additions in the last 15 minutes, with silverbeet preferred because it has a more neutral taste.

I went to Woolworths at 7am to buy the necessary ingredients, and baulked at paying $5 for silverbeet, but think it might be a nice touch.

I have spring onion and Greek yoghurt to add in a bowl when I dish up.