All Vegan Lentils

When I married my husband, as most new brides do, I imagined he was perfect in every way! To my horror he did not share my love for vegetables, most fruits, and don't even mention lentils!
I made it my mission to change his mind about all of the above. After spending more and more time with my in-laws and trying most of his mother's cooking and his grandma's I understood why he hated vegetables! Veggies are precious gems that need tender love and care. Cook them a bit too long and they could be ruined! steam them for hours and you'll end up with limp asparagus that is not only disgusting to look at, but is bland and gross. Yup that's what my poor baby ate throughout his youth!

Soon enough I introduced my flavorful veggies, cooked to perfection, not too little not too much, and it was a success! Along the way my mil has picked up a number of tricks from my style of cooking and can now cook a decent meal where I don't have to lie and say "it's delicious mom!"

For dinner tonight I wanted something easy that I didn't need to put too much thought into making. It had to pretty much cook all on its own and be ready by the time my husband left for work this morning. I decided on lentil soup. Lentils how I love thee! It's the perfect bean? Are they beans? Whatever they are, I love them! They are packed with protein, folic acid, vitamin B and fiber! They have so much flavor and are very versatile!

My favorite way to cook them is in a soup, I usually add anything on hand, that includes bacon most of time. My essential aromatics for 99% of my dishes are garlic and onion. In my opinion these two must be included in every meal, otherwise everything lacks flavor.

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All Vegan Lentils

3 cups dry lentils
8-9 cups of water
8 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
1 whole onion roughly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste I used about 1 Tbsp of salt and just a sprinkle of pepper


Add all the ingredients to a crockpot and cook on low for about 8 hours.

Top them with some ripe cherry tomatoes, some cucumber and avocado. YUM!

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I would usually cook this on the stovetop and taking a different route. First I sauté the onions in a bit of olive oil for about 5 min, stirring constantly. Next I add the garlic and cook for 2 to 3 min. After cooking onions and garlic I add a couple of ripe and roughly chopped roma tomatoes. Next I add the lentils and mix it well and cook for about 5 mins, stirring constantly. Then I add the water and bring to a boil before lowering heat to a simmer covering and cooking for about 2-3 hrs or until the lentils are tender and the water is like a thick sauce.

I put these in my crockpot last night and let them cook all night long. They were ready by the morning and I was able to pack my hubby his lunch and dinner before leaving for work.

Last night I omitted the tomatoes because I didn't have any and didn't feel like going to the store =D

Happy cooking!