Sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil until they begin to turn brown and caramelize. Remove from heat. In a large slow cooker (where I’m from we call ’em crock pots—but that kind of sounds less appetizing, right?), combine the cooked onions and garlic, chopped carrot, chopped potatoes, split peas, lentils, bay leaf, oregano, cayenne and 7 cups of vegetable stock.

Yep, you pretty much just dump it all in there and then set it to high for six hours. If you want to give it a creamier texture, you can blend it with an immersion blender or in batches in a good blender. Remove the bay leaf before you do this. Taste and add salt and pepper or even a bit more cayenne if you want more heat.

I think this tastes even better the next day warmed up! It will get quite thick, so you can thin it out with more stock or water as you reheat it.