rlandre

If you don't want it so rich, use half the butter and substitute half & half for the cream. But honestly, there are a zillion recipes online for this soup, you can easily find one more to your liking. This one is easy, some take a little more prep.

Humblepieliving - that's the nice thing about using an Instant Pot or the equivalent, you can brown the meat first and then switch to slow cooking. Even pressure cook for a few minutes if it's not tender enough.Works great for any potroast.

Seems like the only reason for the slow cooker would be that you can leave it for a couple of hours and do something else. Otherwise, you could cook it in the oven or a saute pan, but you'd have to watch it closely. Flavors are good, use cooked white rice if you prefer.

Good. I always add some chopped celery and a little chopped sweet onion as well.

This is pretty much my German MIL's recipe, except she sliced the potatoes instead of dicing them. Needs to be a firm potato, she used reds but Yukon gold would work too. She didn't use that much sugar except for my serving, since the others liked it a little more sour. I make it fairly often.

My German MIL used to put chopped hotdogs in her lentil soup! I know, know, hotdogs are bad, but so good in the soup! She also added a few tablespoons of sherry at the end. No pasta or tomatoes, but I usually put tomatoes in mine. Good? You bet!