Yummy Vegetable and Red Lentil Soup
This recipe can really be made with any number of vegetables of our choice. Those listed are what I used and they also reflect a good balance of different vegetables maximizing the nutritional content.
- 2 tablespoons of avocado oil (or other high heat oil such as Safflower or Grapeseed)
- 1 small onion diced
- 1/2-1 cup chopped celery
- 1/2-1 cup diced or coarsely grated carrot
- 1/2-1 cup diced sweet potato (optional)
- 1/2 cup diced red, yellow or green pepper or a combination
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 can sweet corn or 1 cup of frozen cord
- 1 medium can diced tomatoes (I use organic)
- 1/2-1 cup frozen or fresh peas
- 1 cup dried red lentils
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth (I use boiled water with a tablespoon of vegetable ‘better than bullion’
- 1 cup frozen spinach (optional)
- 1 can black beans (optional)
- 2-3 tablespoons of chili powder can be added if you like a little heat, or you can dice up a small fresh chili and cook into soup for some real heat.
So as you see the quantities are very flexible, and largely depend on how much you want to make and how big a pan you have available. I don’t usually measure, I just chuck in a good amount of each.
Salute the celery, onion, carrots, sweet potato and pepper in the heated oil. Once all but the sweet potatoes are tender (the sweet potatoes will cook tenderize later), add everything except the black beans, peas and spinach. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes until lentils are tender. Add frozen spinach and frozen peas and simmer another 10-15 minutes.
Taste soup. You may need additional sea salt and pepper depending on your preference. As you see in the picture below, I added a little grated partisan cheese to the top before I ate it 🙂 Enjoy!
