Hearty Lentil Soup

This soup is made with a homemade vegetable stock and lentils. Every week I always make either a vegetable or chicken stock so it's fast and easy to make up a soup with dinner. For my vegetable stock I use the basic stock recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and the lentil soup is pretty much thrown together. Recipe: Ingredients:

 

5 cups vegetable stock

1 cup lentils

1 sweet onion

1 small clove garlic

1 or 2 tablespoons sesame oil

cumin (to taste)

coriander (to taste)

1 carrot finely diced

1 or 2 14 oz cans diced tomato (optional)

1 bunch fresh spinach

Parsley (to garnish)

Sea Salt to taste

 

Steps:

1. Cook the lentils in the stock for roughly 30 to 40 minutes. They should be soft but not falling apart.

2. Add the sesame oil to a saute pan and add garlic, cumin and coriander and heat until fragrant. Add the sweet onion and caramelize. Add onions to the cooked lentils.

3. Stir in diced tomato (optional) and carrot. Allow soup to simmer for a few minutes to cook carrot and blend flavors.

4. Just before serving.... briefly saute fresh spinach in the same pan used to cook the onion. Add to soup as a final step before serving.

5. Salt to taste and garnish with fresh parsley.

Done