Cooking with crockpots (also called slow cookers) is amazing. You throw in a bunch of ingredients, turn it on, and a delicious meal is ready for you when you get home from work. It’s almost like it cooks itself! Oh wait…it does 🙂
Since a bunch of us didn’t have plans for Friday night dinner this week we threw together a potluck. I was in charge of making a main dish, and since I Shabbat is so early now I knew I wouldn’t have too much time to cook. Hence, I decided to use my crockpot.
This is a dump recipe–throw everything in, stir it up, then let the crockpot work its magic. I wanted something hearty and hot (cold weather and all), but also wanted there to be substantial meat so I threw a London broil in on top of my stew. It cooked up beautifully, succulent and juicy (you can also just use stewing beef).
Crockpot Lentil Stew
Ingredients:
1 lb lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 can chickpeas
28 oz can diced tomatoes (I like fire roasted)
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
4 cups beef stock
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 lb London broil or stewing beef
Directions:
- Pour all ingredients except meat into crockpot and stir to mix.
- Lay meat on top of stew mix and push down until just submerged (if using stewing beef, stir into crockpot mixture).
- Cook on high 4-6 hours or on low 8-10 hours.
The cost:
lentils: 1.00
onion: .45
carrots: .20
celery: .20
stock: 2.39
meat: 10.99
Grand total: $15.23; serves 6-8