Slow Cooker Winter Vegetable Soup!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you were all able to stay warm and dry during this wet and gloomy weekend that we had. I don't know about you, but whenever it is cold outside, I love snuggling up inside with a movie and warm food... so that's exactly what I did!

I was so excited to FINALLY see LaLa Land on Saturday and man did it live up to the hype! I think that my favorite part of the experience was that I truly felt like I was seeing an original film/story. Todays movies all seem to be remakes of a popular book, or sequels to other movies, so this one was refreshing.

Now to the most important part: this warm, yummy slow cooker veggie soup that I made! I was looking for a new recipe to try this weekend that would be comforting but still healthy and I think that this one was perfect. This soup is meatless... perfect for you "meatless Monday" followers, but also still satisfies those who build meat into most meals each day (me!) The best part is that I was able to just chop up the veggies, throw it in my crockpot and continue on with my day. Voila, 6 hours later dinner was ready.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 medium zucchini, chopped into 3/4 inch chunks
3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped into 3/4 inch cubes (substitute for sweet potatoes if desired!)
3/4 cup split lentils
1 cup canned chopped tomatoes
2 pieces of parmigiano-reggiano rind
2 dried bay leaves
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
5 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more later for taste
fresh ground pepper
3 cups finely sliced savory cabbage
freshly chopped basil for garnish
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for garnish

Instructions

Mix the olive oil, onion, celery, carrot, zucchini, potatoes, split red lentils, chopped tomatoes, parmigiana rind, bay leaves, thyme, chicken stalk, salt and pepper in a large slow cooker. Cook on high heat for 4-6 hours, or until the lentils are soft.
In the last hour of cook time, add the thinly sliced cabbage. Remove the bay leaves, tough thyme sprigs and parmigiano rind. At this point I would also add more seasonings to taste.
Serve the soup and top each serving with a sprinkling of freshly chopped basil and freshly grated parmigiana-reggiano!
Enjoy!