Greek Lemon, Artichoke and Egg Soup

The downside to trying new things is that occasionally those new things aren't as good as one would hope. This evening we made another dish from The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker. We checked the book out from the library a while back and enjoyed it so much that I put it on my wish list and my parents gave it to me for my birthday.

This dish was pretty simple in that I sautéed the artichokes, celery and onion in olive oil. I added the vegetables to the slow cooker with rice and water and let them cook for the afternoon. When it was about time to eat we whisked eggs together with lemon juice to go into the soup.

This all smelled delightful, but the final dish was far too tart with the 1/2 cup of lemon juice that it called for. Also, rather than being a soup, it became more of a slush. We think that our slow cooker may go a lot hotter than what the recipes expect it to. Every time we use it it seems to over cook even at the low end of cooking times.

artichoke, celery and onion ready for the pan

 ready for the soup

at least the bread was good

Sicilian Lentil, Vegetable and Pasta Soup

It has been a gray soggy Sunday here in Charlotte so we decided to try a slow cooker recipe from a new book at my library called The Italian Slow Cooker. As one might imagine, this book isn't exactly vegetarian friendly, but it did have a nice sounding lentil soup. The prep for this dish was simple and just involved chopping some vegetables and tossing them in the pot with some water and since we went with canned tomatoes we didn't have to bother with peeling and seeding. We never said we wouldn't cut corners here.

The pot cooked on low for 7 hours and we added elbow pasta and let it cook on high for an additional 30 minutes. To go along with the soup we kept with the cutting corners and had some frozen garlic bread. The soup was a good start, but will need some work if we do it again in the future. We think that replacing some of the water with vegetable stock or adding a little bouillon would add a deeper flavor, also adding some fresh herbs would help. If anyone has herb suggestions we are open to them. We give this dish 3 stars out of 5, but it has potential. As a slow cooker recipe should be, it is a good one to let go all day and you can just leave it alone, though an occasional stir doesn't hurt.

mmm fresh veggies

chopped veggies

more pictures here