Guest Post- Crock Pot Lentil and Sweet Potato Daal

I love how things just seem to work out amazingly sometimes... I've written about certain concerns about how I'd be eating when traveling in the Midwest of the US this week for work, especially since I am on a pretty restricted diet- no gluten, dairy, processed food, soy, eggs, fish, sugar, etc... It definitely isn't easy to be feeding me, but I've connected with 3 of my Facebook friends who are on a very similar diet, and they offered that I stay at their houses while in their city, and it's been really amazing, because I've been able to feel confident that I can eat there without getting sick. It's also given me the opportunity to meet these amazing women.
However, I was going to Kansas City, and I don't really know people here, other than one person, who is completely unfamiliar with a natural foods, gluten free, restricted diet, and she offered to host me, but was a little intimidated by all my food sensitivities, so she set me up with her friend, Daniella Silver, a health coach and blogger, who is on the same page as I am in terms of food sensitivities- they eat gluten free, dairy free, processed food free in their home, a "real food diet", and I've been staying here the past two days, and really been hitting it off with her and her husband... In large part because I don't feel like a kooky crazy hard to feed person here, because they eat so similarly, and live so similarly in general, with a similar outlook on life (cloth diapering, natural parenting, etc...)
Last night for supper, over dinner, we were discussing about blogging, and the husband, Yosef Silver, was telling me about his foodie blog. We were eating a delicious lentil and sweet potato daal, with wild rice, kale chips, and a veggie salad, and I asked him if he'd like to guest blog the recipe for our supper here, because it is definitely up my alley and the alley of the readers here, as it is processed food free, super healthy, and cheap, as well as vegan... And he was happy to, so now I'll hand over the floor to Yosef.



It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Yosef. Twice a week, I share real-food recipes at This American Bite. My goal is to highlighting flavor when cooking from scratch, seasoning a plate or simply breaking bread. Nothing gives me more pleasure than sharing a meal with a friend, new or old, so when my wife found out that Penny from Penniless Parenting would be passing through Kansas City and needed a place to stay, a place that could also offer wholesome, gluten free and nutritious food, we jumped a the opportunity.


That's what we like to do. We like to make friends through food.

I knew that dinner would have to be fairly early as my wife and Penny were going to a lecture at 6:45 pm so I wanted something that I could prep ahead and leave in the slow cooker. I've been on an Indian Food kick recently having having shared sweet potato curry with gluten free naan and a red lentil daal just a few days later. With plenty of lentils in the house, I soaked two cups of red lentils and two cups of green lentils for two days and decided I'd serve daal.

Daal is a great dish for people on any diet. It's protein rich, creamy and warming. It's so easy to "set it and forget it" and I had all the ingredients in the house.

Or so I thought...

This recipe is very loosely based on the lentil daal recipe I shared with my readers recently and adapted for the slow cooker, and based on the ingredients I actually had in the house. Here's how I made enough to serve three hungry adults and two kids -- with plenty of leftovers for me to pack up an take to work tomorrow.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 yellow onion
1 large sweet potato
2 cups red lentils
2 cups green lentils
1 diced tomato
2 cups home made vegetable stock
1-2 generous teaspoons each of curry powder, turmeric, garlic powder, nutritional yeast and paprika
1 head of garlic

Soak your lentils for anywhere from 15 minutes if you are in a time crunch, or 48 hours if you have the time. If you do soak the lentils for a long time, change the water morning, noon and night.

Dice your onion and put it at the bottom of the slow cooker. Dice the sweet potato and add that, same for the tomato. Add the spices and mix with your hands.

Pour in the stock and then add water until the lentils are covered. Cut a head of garlic in half and place that on top. Cook in the slow cooker on low for six hours.

Serve with rice or naan.

If you're looking for protein rich, low cost or easy to make recipes, my home pickled eggs and my deconstruction hummus salad are just two of my favorites that never get old.

We're lucky that Penny is joining us for dinner again tonight and I will be making sweet potato shepherds pie. It's been a real pleasure sharing this recipe with you and if I am lucky, perhaps Penny will let me share tonight's dinner recipe with you too! Please leave a comment below if you have any questions. It's always a pleasure to discuss food and recipes with people.

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 This American Bite is written by food enthusiast, Yosef Silver who has gained the attention of many food blogging communities for having a fresh and healthy approach to living in the Midwest. You can find Yosef's online, on Facebook or Pinterest. Yosef really likes it when people say hi to him on Twitter so let him know what you thought of this recipe!

Have you ever met any people you met through the internet, such as fellow bloggers or people whose blog you read or readers of your blog? Did you hit it off?
Does this look like a recipe you'd like to try out?