Slow Cooked Butternut Squash, Chickpea and Red Lentil Stew

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot and jalapeño and sauté until the onion becomes translucent, about six minutes. Add the minced garlic and garam masala and sauté for another minute, stirring well to coat. Turn off the heat and set pan aside.

Place the butternut squash, drained chickpeas, diced tomatoes with juices included, dried red lentils, vegetable broth and onion mixture into your large slow cooker. Turn the heat on low and cook for about 10 hours. For a thicker stew, cook longer.

Season with a pinch of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper and serve with some freshly shaved Parmesan.

Notes:
1. This stew freezes well and will keep in the fridge for up to five days.
2. Recipe adapted from Eat, Live, Run.
3. I recommend cooking this stew for at least 10 hours to make it nice and thick. The stew pictured in this post, was cooked for 12 hours, but I’ve made it in 8 and the flavour is still there. It’s just more soup-like than stew.