This recipe has so many things going for it - it's about the easiest recipe you'll find, it's incredibly inexpensive, it's filling and delicious, and it's very healthy. (Yes, it has bacon, but even with extra bacon added, the amount per serving is very small, and much of the fat has been rendered out before adding it to the soup.) Everything else in it is uber-healthy. I doubled this recipe (I have a slow cooker with 3 bowl sizes, including a 6 qt. size) and doubled most of the ingredients. I tripled (give or take) the onion, and used four garlic cloves, and four strips of bacon (sliced thinly prior to cooking, for ease.) I used freshly ground black pepper and sea salt, to taste, rather than measured. This just ramped up the flavor a bit, although I am quite sure this would have been delicious as originally written. And, I did not have fresh parsley, so I used dry. There can be a world of difference between the two, but for a recipe like this, I'm not sure if the dry made a noticeable difference. I also cooked this on HIGH for about 4 hours, rather than on low for a longer time. I often think the direction to cook on low is more for convenience (cook it while you're at work) than a necessity. Most recipes will turn out the same either way. This recipe is extremely economical. I don't go out of my way to cut expenses, but when it just happens, what a great thing! For 4 cups of lentils, I used 1.5 16 oz. (by dry weight) bags of lentils, purchased at Wal-Mart for 98 cents a bag. That's only about $1.50 for lentils for a huge pot of soup! The veggies were probably $1.00 total for the amount used in this doubled recipe, although I had to buy a lot more than needed for the recipe, so I had to spend more than $1.00 - probably $4.00 or $5.00. Tomatoes in a can are a buck or two. The big expense is the bacon, but a pack of generic brand bacon can be had for under $4.00, sometimes $2.99 on sale.... and generic is just fine here... and for that price, you have a bunch leftover. The oregano and parsley, in dry form, as well as the wine vinegar, are pretty common, so they're kind of freebies. (And you could leave out the vinegar or use another kind or even a small amount of wine, if needed.) This recipe is really pennies a serving... make a bunch and freeze some! It could also probably be made vegetarian with the substitution of a bit of olive oil and some liquid smoke for the bacon. A winner!

I made this soup (and reported on it) about a week ago. I had more than enough ingredients so I decided to do it again this week. This time I doubled the ingredients (except the water - I used 14 cups, not 16 because the crock pot wouldn't hold the last two cups). I also decided to add a fully cooked pork shoulder butt during the final hour and a half, after boiling it for about 15 minutes to skim off the foam. Whoa! Was this ever good! (Admittedly, I added a lot of fat and calories, not to mention this was not a ""near-vegetarian"" meal. But that's what the treadmill is for. Obviously, the cost to make it went up too.) I'm all out of lentils, now. In a month or so, I'll probably experiment again. Yummers.

I made this soup largely as specified in the recipe (I used three cloves of garlic rather than one, did not use chicken as one version suggested because I wanted to make this a near-vegetarian dish, and used dried parsley rather than fresh because I didn't want to run to the store for the one ingredient that I lacked). I agree that this is a delicious soup. The twist for me was to make a batch of brown rice in a rice cooker, timing it for the completion of the basic crockpot recipe. I then placed the rice in serving bowls and poured the soup over it, allowing the liquid to blend with the brown rice. The dish turned into a heartier version of the recipe because the flavor of the brown rice enriched the flavors of the soup. The result was a bit more like chili on rice rather than a soup as the rice soaked up most of the liquid. For me, this was a more complete meal than the soup alone. Delicious.

I remember eating lentil soup all the time as a kid. I was searching the web to find just the right twist to make sure it was something my picky husband would enjoy. This recipe was a winner! It was super easy and smelled so good even shortly after starting the crockpot that it actually woke my husband up (now I know the trick!) I made just a few small changes to my version: I added three cloves of garlic (it still didn't result in a overly garlicy taste after 10 hours of cooking, just boosted the overall flavor). I added about six strips of crumbled bacon (again, you don't notice the bacon much but you definitely notice the smokey flavor). Finally, I added one large boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and cut into stips. By the time the soup was ready, the chicken had softened into smaller shreds. The soup would undoubtedly be just as good without the chicken, but it made for an easy one-bowl meal. We eat a low-carb diet, and lentils are extremely high in dietary fiber and resistant starches - I can honestly say that this is among the very best ""accidentally"" low-carb recipes I've ever found. I will definitely be making this one again and again - it's healthy, hearty and my husband loves it!