Slow Cooker Lentil and Sausage Stew

Got up this morning debating whether to squeeze in a run and decided against because #1 it was freezing out at 7am, #2 Ollie was having a moment of energy and I wanted to encourage him to walk around, eat, and drink a little (all the things he hadn't been feeling up to the past couple of days) and #3 this morning was my first 9:00am Remedies class and I didn't want to chance being late the first day. Needless to say, I should have slept in, gone for a run, and spent extra time with Ollie because after waiting in class for 30 minutes we found out that class was cancelled for the day.

I salvaged the morning by getting dinner ready. Yes, getting dinner ready at 10:30am. I had planned on a stove top skillet dinner of lentils, sausage and kale after I found a yummy, healthy sounding recipe from Eating Well. But with the extra time I had now (and none in the evening) I thought why not convert it to a slow cooked meal?

After a couple quick internet searches I found inspiration for converting the Eating Well recipe to a slow cooker version on A Year in Slow Cooking. Here's my adaptation of the two recipes.

2 Mild Italian Chicken Sausages (uncooked) (about 0.6 lbs)
1 cup dried green lentils
2 cups low sodium beef broth
1 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes (no salt)
3 carrots peeled and diced
1 medium yellow onion diced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp ground black pepper
salt to taste
5-6 cups kale (shredded)
1 TBSP olive oil


1. Rinse lentils. Add to slow cooker.
2. Add canned tomatoes, beef broth and spices to slow cooker.
3. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add chopped onions and cook until translucent. Add onions to slow cooker.
4. Chop uncooked sausage into bite size pieces and brown in saucepan. When fully cooked add to slow cooker. *Note: if you are using precooked sausages just chop and put directly in slow cooker.

5. Mix ingredients. Set slow cooker to "low" and cook for 7 hours.

6. When stew is finished cooking add the clean, chopped kale, mix in, and close lid. Allow to continue cooking (set to "warm") 10-15 minutes or until kale is wilted and softened.

(Ok, so in this picture, I obviously didn't mix in the kale. I got home late and was too hungry to wait for the kale to wilt in the slow cooker so I plated the kale first and spooned the lentil-sausage stew over it. Delicious!) Husband opted for no kale. So a win-win.