I found this one on an old man's Instagram account. It was really nice! I subbed some of the stock for a can of IPA.

Lentil Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 chopped onion
4 cloves of chopped garlic
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of salt
6 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of red lentils, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of yellow lentils, rinsed and drained

Instructions:

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add onions and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, about five minutes.
Stir in the carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables are tender, about eight more minutes.
Stir in your tomato paste, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper (if you decide to use), salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, and chili powder.
Mix in your lentils and chicken stock.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer until the lentils are soft, about 40 minutes.

This Slowcooker Lentil Soup tastes great and freezes well.

This recipe is so good. I'm a vegetarian, not vegan, but I'm always looking for really good no meat options and this is just delicious, basically it's beef stew flavored.

Also you can replace the meat in tacos and gyros with lentils using the same seasoning, also delicious. Just use whatever recipe you normally like for those.

You should look into chickpeas. Personally I find that lentils work great where you might use red meat and chickpeas work great where you might use white meat/chicken so you don't even need specific recipes because you can just omit the meat and add the legumes instead.

I put lentils in my vegetarian chili. Do chilli however you like - I prefer a bean blend over straight kidney beans- and just boil a pot of lentils and use them in place of the ground beef if your doing a quick chili. I would think you wouldn't want them pre cooked if you're doing a slow cook chili.