Italian Lentil and Barley Soup

1 cup lentils
1/3 cup pearl barley
1 cup carrots (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
1 cup onions (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
3 1/2 cups broth
2 1/2 cups water
1 14 1/4 ounces can Italian style diced tomatoes

Sort through lentils, remove debris and shriveled beans, then rinse. Add lentils to crock pot, along with barley, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, dried herbs and bay leaf. Pour in broth, water, and tomatoes. Cover and cook on low heat for 12 to 14 hours, or on high heat for 5 to 6 hours. Discard bay leaf just before serving.Lentils aren't like dried beans. They don't require soaking and cook pretty quickly when you do it right. Also, don't add any additional salt to the soup while it is cooking, and don't add lentils to already boiling water as either one can make lentils tough.
Use vegetable broth for a vegetarian version or beef broth is you don't care if it is vegetarian or not.



**** Four stars for overall taste
**** Four stars for ease of assembly
**** Four stars for "my kids" friendly
This does take some chopping to assemble so I didn't give it 5 stars although in my book it was really easy to do. I used beef broth because I didn't have any vegetarian vegetable broth. My whole family was leary of this recipe and it actually was pretty good. No problems with the kids eating it and the DH and I thought it tasted pretty good. Lentils are some of the best things you can eat! They are super good for you. We will put this in our recipe box and eat it again.