Crock Pot Lentil Butternut Squash Soup

Crock Pot Lentil Butternut Squash Soup is a delicious fall crock pot soup recipe made with dry lentil beans and fresh butternut squash.

Crock Pot Fall Soup Recipes

Crock Pot soup recipes made with dried beans and butternut squash are perfect during the fall. Dried bean soup recipes are great protein and fiber packed meals.

Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup is a savory vegetarian crock pot soup recipe that is so good your non vegetarian family will love it.

Dried Lentils Soup

Dried brown lentil beans and fresh butternut squash are a perfect combination of flavors in this fall inspired soup recipe.

Dried lentil soup recipes like this recipe are very easy to make.

Lentils are one of the easiest dried beans to cook. Cooking them in the crock pot makes them even easier, or you can cook them in a pot on the stove.

Because dried lentil beans are so small there is no need to soak them before cooking them. That makes lentils the perfect dried bean for crock pot soup recipes.

You can cook dried lentils on high in the crock pot in 4 hours. The lentils are soft and tender but not mushy.

Lentil beans are packed full good stuff

Lentil beans are one of the healthiest dried beans you can cook with. Lentils are high in protein making them a perfect meat alternative.

High in fiber for a healthy belly. Lentil beans are packed full of vitamins and minerals and very low in calories when compared to other dried beans.

Ingredients

• dried brown lentils
• vegetables: butternut squash, celery, carrots, onion, diced tomatoes
• herbs and spices: minced garlic, dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme, dried bay leaf
• vegetable broth

Directions

Crock Pot Lentil Butternut Squash Soup is very easy to make and has very simple soup ingredients that when combined together they make a delicious and amazing soup that is perfect served for lunch or dinner on a cold and dreary day.

Step 1: To prepare the dried lentil beans for cooking all you need to do is measure the beans and rinse them in a fine mesh colander under cold running water.

As you rinse the lentil beans watch for any debris that may have been packed with the dried beans and discard.

How to cut and peel a raw butternut squash

Step 2: Cut and peel the fresh butternut squash. I have found it is easier to peel the tough skin of uncooked butternut squash if you work with small pieces. Carefully cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise then cut each half into fourths.

I used half of a medium size butternut squash for this recipe. You could add more squash if you like. I cut the quarter pieces of butternut squash into smaller piece that were easier to peel. It is much easier to peel these smaller pieces of raw squash with a vegetable peeler.

I stripped the tough peel from each piece of the smaller butternut squash pieces.

My ceramic vegetable peeler peeled right through the tough skin with no problem at all. After peeling all of the squash I then cut each piece into cubes.

Step 3: Once you have the lentils rinsed and the butternut squash cut into cubes add all of the other ingredients to the crock pot.

Place the butternut squash into the bottom of the slow cooker. Add the diced celery, diced carrots and diced onion to the crock pot.

Open the can of whole or diced tomatoes and pour them with the liquid into the crock pot.

Bonus Tip: This lentil recipe uses dried basil, dried oregano and dried thyme. If you like to grow your own herbs you can of course substitute fresh herbs instead of the dried. You will use half the amount of fresh herbs in place of the dried herbs.

Step 4: Once you have all the ingredients in the crock pot place the lid on and set the crock pot to high or low. On high this dried lentil bean soup will cook for four hours.

Step 5: Add the rinsed and drained lentil beans to the crock pot. Then add the minced garlic, dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme and bay leaf to the crock pot.

Step 6: Pour the vegetable broth into the crock pot and stir to combine.

Step 7: Place the lid on and cook for 4 hours on high or 6 to 8 hours on low.

If you are cooking this dried lentil bean soup recipe on low in the crock pot you will cook it for 6 to 8 hours.

The cooking times will vary depending on how soft you like the dried lentils to be cooked. A longer cooking time will give you a softer cooked lentil bean.

Recipe Expert Tips

• Lentils: Any type of lentil bean can be used for this recipe but the cooking time will be different. See below.
• Peel the squash before cooking. Cut into small pieces that are easier to peel with a vegetable peeler.
• Squash: if cooking for 8 hours add the cubed raw squash to the slow cooker. If cooking for 4 hours partially cook the squash in the microwave. Cover the cubed squash with water and cook on high for 2 minutes to slightly soften the butternut squash. You don't want to cook it through.
• Cooking times: cooking times will vary. Cook until the beans and squash are tender.

Types of Lentil Beans

There are six different types of lentil beans. There is brown lentils like I have used, green lentils, red lentils, yellow lentil beans, black lentil beans (Begula) and French green lentil beans also known as Le Puy.

You can substitute any one of the other types of dried lentil beans in this crock pot lentil soup recipe. But keep in mind there is a difference in the length of cooking time depending on the type lentil bean used.

The cooking time for this recipe is based on using brown lentil beans that I have used in this soup recipe.

Crock Pot Lentil Ham Soup

Crock Pot Lentil Ham Soup is another favorite crock pot lentil bean soup recipe.

More Crock Pot Recipes

If you love crock pot soup recipes head over to my Crock Pot Soup recipes page where you will find all links to all of my crock pot soup recipes.

Because I know you love slow cooker recipes as much as I do head over to my main Slow Cooker Recipes page where you will find links to all my slow cooker recipes. Flour On My Face is the ultimate resource for easy crock pot recipes for busy families! Take a look around!

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