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This delicious Crockpot Lentil Soup with Sausage and Spinach can also be made in a pan on the stove! This was surprisingly low in carbs for a soup with lentils and brown rice, but replace those ingredients with frozen cauliflower rice if you want a lower-carb option!
PIN Crockpot Lentil Soup with Sausage and Spinach to try it later!
I first made this Crockpot Lentil Soup with Sausage and Spinach on a day when my brother Rand happened to be in Utah visiting for my dad’s 85th birthday party. Rand always likes to try out my leftover cooking experiments when he’s visiting, and he loved this soup so much that when he went back home he asked if he could have the recipe before it was posted on the blog.
I’m always in debt to Rand for the beautiful graphics he creates for the blog, so of course I was only too happy to send off the recipe by e-mail. Rand made the soup for friends who also want the recipe now, so I decided I better hurry and get it posted!
If you’re a fan of making soup in the crockpot, this is a great recipe to cook on the weekend when you’re busy doing other things. But if you don’t have a crockpot, check the end of the recipe for instructions of how to make this on the stove.
What ingredients do you need?
How can you make this a lower-carb soup?
There’s not a lot of lentils or brown rice in this soup, so check the nutritional information and see what you think. But if you want a soup that’s even lower in carbs, just use a bit more sausage and switch out the lentils and brown rice for about 1 cup frozen cauliflower rice. I’d add the cauliflower rice towards the end of the cooking time.
How to Make Crockpot Lentil Soup with Sausage and Spinach:
(Scroll down for complete recipe with nutritional information.)
- Cook the diced onion, carrot, and celery in a little olive oil, then saute the veggies with the dried spices and garlic before you add it to the crockpot. I think this extra step adds a lot of flavor to crockpot soups.
- Cut up 3 pre-cooked sausages into bite sized pieces and add to crockpot.
- (I used Aidell’s Artichoke and Garlic Chicken Sausage for my soup, but any type of pre-cooked chicken or turkey sausage will work. Use more sausage if you prefer, which will make the soup lower in carbs!)
- Then add canned tomatoes with juice, chicken stock, brown lentils, red lentils, and salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.
- Cook that on high for about 3 hours, or until the brown lentils are soft and the red lentils are starting to dissolve.
- Then add 1/4 cup uncooked brown rice (or cauliflower rice) and 4 cups chopped fresh spinach. (I used Uncle Ben’s Brown Rice.)
- Cook that for about an hour longer.
- Then stir in 2 T balsamic vinegar, cook for about 15 minutes more and serve hot. This is good with parmesan cheese sprinkled over if desired.
More Tasty Soups with Lentils:
Sausage and Lentil Soup
Vegan Lentil Soup with Spinach
Slow Cooker Greek Lentil Soup
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe has been added to a category called Weekend Food Prep to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion, diced very small
- 1 carrot, diced very small
- 2 large stalks celery, diced very small
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 T minced garlic (from a jar, use less if fresh garlic)
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1 tsp. Spike seasoning
- 3 links pre-cooked chicken or turkey sausage, diced in 1/4-1/2 inch pieces
- one 14.5 oz. can petite dice tomatoes
- 6 cups chicken broth (see notes)
- 1/4 cup brown lentils
- 1/4 cup red lentils
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup long-grain brown rice
- 4 cups chopped fresh spinach
- 2 T balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Dice onion, carrot and celery.
- Heat olive oil in heavy frying pan, add veggies and saute until starting to soften, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add garlic, thyme, and Spike seasoning and saute about 2 minutes more, then add veggies to crockpot.
- Add diced chicken sausage, canned tomatoes, chicken stock, brown lentils, red lentils, and salt and pepper to crockpot and cook on high about 3 hours (or until brown lentils are soft and red lentils are starting to dissolve.)
- Add brown rice (I like Uncle Ben’s brown rice) and chopped spinach and cook about 1 hour more.
- Stir in balsamic vinegar and cook 15 minutes.
- Serve hot, with Parmesan cheese if desired.
Stove-Top Recipe Instructions:
- Use at least 1 cup more stock or chicken broth for stove-top cooking.
- Heat oil in a heavy soup pot, then saute vegetables, garlic, and seasonings as above.
- Add diced chicken sausage, canned tomatoes, chicken stock, brown lentils, red lentils, and salt and pepper and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, or until lentils are soft.
- Add brown rice and chopped spinach and simmer about 30 minutes more, or until rice is soft. (Check to see if you need to add a little more liquid when you add the rice and spinach.)
- Stir in balsamic vinegar and simmer about 5 minutes more.
- Serve hot, with Parmesan cheese if desired.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6
Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 203Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 56mgSodium: 1399mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 3gSugar: 3gProtein: 17g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Using low-fat chicken or turkey sausage and low-glycemic ingredients like lentils and brown rice makes this Crockpot Lentil Soup with Sausage and Spinach a great choice for phase 2 or 3 of the original South Beach Diet. Lentils and brown rice are high in carbs for traditional low-carb diet plans, but there isn’t too much of either of those ingredients so you might be surprised if you check the nutritional information. (If you want a version that’s even lower in carbs, use more sausage and replace lentils and rice with about one cup of cauliflower rice.)
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Soup Recipes to find more tasty soups like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You can also Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there. Click here for more Slow Cooker / Pressure Cooker Recipes on my other site!
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe was posted in 2010. It was last updated in 2021 with more information and suggestions for making a lower-carb version.
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