Lentil and vegetable potage in the slow cooker

I love making home made soup, its so comforting and ideal for a weekend lunch or for packing and taking to work. This recipe is so simple and so delicious and is so healthy too, what ever your diet this soup is for you. Potage was a medieval staple and even though I have taken some "poetic" license in including ingredients that were not available at that time, such as potatoes, onions, etc,  I think its can still be called a potage.

Lentils are used to give a smooth rib sticking velvety feel to the soup supplemented with seasonal local vegetables. I slow cooked this soup  in my slow cooker but this is not absolutely necessary and you would get the same great results on the hob.

What you need

• 1 cup red/orange lentils
• 1 large onion, peeled and  chopped 
• 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, chopped
• 1 large potato, peeled and chopped
• A little oil / butter
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• Sprig of fresh rosemary
• Small piece of pared lemon rind 
• About 1 litre vegetable stock - this needs to be hot / boiling
• Salt and Pepper

What you do

• Switch on your slow cooker to pre heat
• Heat a little oil or butter in a large pan and add the vegetables, cook for a few minutes until slightly softened
• Place the vegetables along with the lentils, stock, herbs and lemon rind in the slow cooker
• Cook on high for about 2 - 3 hours, until the vegetables are soft and the lentils mushy
• Remove the bay leaves, rosemary and lemon rind
• Process to a smooth velvety texture with a hand held blender, taste and season as appropriate, you may also want to add a little hot water or stock to thin the soup to your desired consistency.

I am using this recipe for  entry into several related blogging challenges.

Slow cooker challenge - this months theme is soup.The challenge was created and is hosted by Janice over at Farmersgirl Kitchen, I used my slow cooker to create my soup so it more than qualifies.

                                         

Cooking with herbs (theme this month is citrus) - January 2014 created and hosted by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage, the recipe features bay leaves, rosemary and lemon peel.

                                              

Simple and in Season - January 2014 created and hosted by Ren over at Renbehan.com . The recipe is a simple seasonal soup using local winter vegetables and herbs from the garden.

                                               

No croutons required Vegetarian Soup and Salad challenge hosted this month by Lisa at Food and Spice, the recipe is suitable for vegetarians and could easily be made vegan by using vegetable oil rather than butter.

                                                        

My Legume Love affair hosted this month by Briggishome , as the recipe uses lentils it qualifies for this challenge. The rules of which you can find here , a lovely blogging challenge created by Sue at the well seasoned cook.

                                                             

Slow Cooker Chicken and Mushroom Hotpot

At this time of year all you want to eat is comfort food, warm cosy bakes, stews, casseroles and the like. The sort of dishes that create a warm pleasantly scented fug in your kitchen, dishes that thrive on neglect, not in the flavour stakes but in the cooking,quietly simmering in the background to slowly create multi layered dishes of delight.

Chicken is a popular meat which doesn't really need the slow cooker treatment as it cooks pretty fast but sometimes you just need the convenience of being able to put all your ingredients in the cooker and leave it to get on with cooking whilst you get on with your life. Yesterday was one of those days, wild wet weather and lots going on, so I popped this dish on around lunchtime so that it would be ready for supper.

Christened a hotpot as it bears a passing resemblance to that old faithful Lancashire Hotpot.

What you need

• 2 Chicken breast fillets, chopped in to bite sized chunks
• 6 -8 button mushrooms, sliced
• 5 small onions (pickling size or shallots)
• 1 stick of celery - chopped
• 1 large carrot - peeled and chopped
• About 400ml Chicken stock 
• Fresh thyme 
• Couple of bayleaves
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 heaped tsp grain mustard
• 1 tbsp cornflour - slaked with a little water
• Salt and pepper
• 4 large potatoes - peeled and sliced thinly
• Olive oil

What you do

• Preheat your slow cooker, whilst you fry off the chicken pieces in a little olive oil in a frying pan
• Once they are lovely and golden , add all the vegetables except the potatoes to the pan and cook for a few minutes, to soften slightly.
• Now add the stock, mustard, herbs, Worcestershire sauce to the pan, give it a good stir and let simmer for about 3 minutes, then add the slaked cornflour. This will thicken the sauce.
• In the slow cooker layer the potato slices with the chicken and vegetable mixture, topping off with potatoes. Add a little boiling water if the dish looks dry.
• Cook on high for at least 4 hours until the potatoes are cooked and the chicken is tender. Season and serve on its own or with your choice of green vegetables.

This post and recipe was created in association with Schwartz  for which I have been compensated. This recipe is my original work.

Slow cooker creamy chicken curry

Firstly apologies for not the most wonderful of photographs, its a quick snap taken before demolishing this dish and I was very hungry. I love my slow cooker but up until recently I hadn't made a curry in it, its so nice to return home from work with supper ready and just needing some rice to accompany it.

I used some of the last of the courgettes from the garden and also some other waifs and strays from the fridge too, along with some trusty chicken thighs and a tin of coconut milk.

What you need

• A Slow cooker
• Chicken thighs - chopped into bitesize chinks
• Onion - finely chopped
• Curry powder
• Mango chutney / bengali pineapple chutney
• Courgettes - cut into quarter slices
• Red pepper - cur into little chunks
• Handful of frozen peas
• Tin of coconut milk
• Strong chicken stock
• Salt and pepper

What you do

• Preheat your slow cooker
• Fry off the onion,pepper, courgettes and chicken 
• Place in slow cooker
• Add the curry powder, chutney, coconut milk and a little chicken stock
• Cook on slow for approx 6 -8 hours until the chicken is tender
• For the last 40 minutes of cooking add the frozen peas, turn slow cooker to high
• Serve with basmati recipe and poppadoms.

Slow cooker Brisket of beef

I love beef brisket, this cheap cut of beef is awesome slow cooked so that it becomes melting tender. This recipe, if you can call it that is so simple, its actually an insult to call it a recipe to be honest.

To get a good brisket you will need to visit a butchers as most supermarkets don't stock brisket (Booths and Morrisons do normally have them however) not sure why I think they must think it a downmarket cut, more fools them as its great. Plus make sure you buy British Beef, look out for the Red Tractor mark.

Ingredients

• Rolled brisket of beef
• Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp
• Demarera sugar - 1tbsp
• Wine vinegar 1 tbsp
• Salt and Pepper

Method 

• Make a paste of all the ingredients other than the brisket, rub onto the brisket, wrap in foil and place in slow cooker
• Cook for 8-10 hours, turn over half way through (not essential)
• When ready to serve, thicken juices in slow cooker with gravy granules or slaked cornflour
• Serve slices with gravy and usual accompaniments , it will be meltingly tender.

This would be a great dish to serve up in honor of St George ! its also great if you have any leftovers on a chunky sandwich with horseradish and salad, or stir fried with oyster sauce and egg fried rice.