Vegetable Lentil Soup

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You may notice unusual coloring in some of the vegetables on my photos. I've been lucky and attentive enough to find the more unusual colorful varieties of some of my favorite foods, such as the blue or purple potatoes (Wegmans), watermelon-radishes (Russell's winter farmers market), and yellow and purple carrots (Russell's winter farmers market). I use the colorful potatoes and carrots in my soup to improve taste and nutrition. If you don't have access to these wonderful varieties, simply substitute whatever you have available. Also, I make a very large batch so I can freeze some of it and keep a crockpot going, since I eat it for breakfast and lunch every day. You may want to halve the recipe!

I approximate the cost of this recipe to be about $12.00, and that's with using organic and gourmet farmers market ingredients. That comes to less than $1 per bowl!

INGREDIENTS

2t pure olive oil

1 purple carrot, sliced

1 yellow carrot, sliced

1 to 2 onions, diced 1

1 stalk organic celery, chopped

10C vegetable broth 2

1.5C dry lentils

1C chopped potato

1 chopped hot pepper optional 3

1/4t dry black pepper (if you don't use a hot pepper, increase to 1/2t)

4 bay leaves

dash sea salt

dash of nutritional yeast optional

2T organic lemon juice

1. In a large pot, sautée onions, carrot, and celery in olive oil for about five minutes until onions start to turn transparent.
2. Mix "Better Than Bouillon in hot water. Add to pot. Increase heat to boil.
3. Add lentils and everything except the potatoes and lemon juice.
4. Cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 45 minutes. After 20 minutes, add potatoes.
5. Remove from heat. Remove bay leaves and stir in lemon juice before serving.

   

1 I can't cope with the fumes so I buy pre-diced from Stop and Shop. If you do the same, scoop about 1C.

2 I use "Better Than Bouillon" vegetarian. Both beef style and "no chicken" work well, but I prefer "no chicken." Because of all the other seasoning, I use 2T per 10C water, which is a little less than directions call for.

3 The best thing about these is you can stock up during the summer when farmers markets have them real cheap, wash and toss in a paper bag in the freezer. No other prep is needed! When ready to use, you can simply chop it up and use it, without thawing. I use cherry peppers because I can't cope with very spicy peppers.

Last updated: 21 Feb. 2012