Easy lentil and vegetable soup – Fresh Foodie

The fun part about this lentil soup is that you can alter it in about four-thousand ways and never feel like you're bored.

I love vacation days … the ones where nothing in particular has been planned and schlepping around the house is the preferred family activity. It’s days like these (add in some pouring rain) that inspire me to make a big pot of homemade soup, and that’s exactly what I did today.

We don’t have any Thanksgiving leftovers hanging around, since we didn’t host, so the fridge and pantry were looking pretty bare. I didn’t even have a can of lentil soup, which turned out to be a very good thing indeed. I literally just chopped and tossed, tossed and chopped until a soup was born. Cooking with whole foods is so very easy and healthy, and this soup took just over 30 minutes from start to finish.

The fun part about this lentil soup is that you can alter it in about four-thousand ways and never feel like you’re bored. I’ll include a few variations — that Owen whined about while he was eating lunch — but the ingredients in your fridge, freezer and pantry are your only limitations. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I am a food hoarder and have just about every frozen vegetable known to man at any given time. Trust me, it comes in handy.

Easy Lentil and Vegetable Soup

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Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups dried lentils
6 cups water
1 TB Better Than Bouillon, or any concentrated veggie broth
2 large carrots
2 stalks celery
1 onion
5 cloves garlic
2 cups corn
2 cups green beans
1 tablespoon miso
2 teaspoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
freshly ground pepper
1 cup baby spinach
pecorino romano for serving

Put the water and lentils in a large pot and bring to a boil, then turn heat down so you’ve got a rapid simmer going. As you chop the other ingredients (or yank them out of your freezer) just toss them in. I’m sure you could argue technique with me from now until the soup pot boils over, but this method works for this soup (and for me most of the time). If there’s an ingredient you want less cooked, add it in late (like I stirred in the spinach at the very end).

Simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. You can cover this or not, depending on how thick or brothy you like your soup. Be sure to sprinkle with freshly grated cheese just before serving.

Variations:

Add diced potatoes, your five-year-old will whine much less.
Add a 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes.
Change out the spices and use 2 tablespoons of curry powder and 1 teaspoon of ginger instead. And heck, if you’re going there, add a can of coconut milk to the broth.