Saturday, January 29, 2011

COZY KITCHEN CURRIED LENTIL SOUP

To be honest, I haven't been much inspired to make supper this last leg of my pregnancy journey.  Estimated date of arrival of the new babe is in six days and I find myself lugging myself into the kitchen each night trying to figure out what to make.  Thank goodness my mom is arriving today, I look forward to passing the wooden spoon over to her for a little while.  Hope she doesn't mind!  
     Soup seems to be making an appearance on our menu more often than not these days.  I suppose that might have something to do with me trying to use up what ingredients we already have in the house, coupled with my insistence on only buying what is seasonal.  So we have been eating lots of squash, kale, carrots, and other wintry goods, which just so happen to make good soup too.  We eat a lot of lentil soup around here, but I wasn't much interested in a tomato based soup (all our stews and soups tend to have tomato in them) so opted for a curried lentil variety.  I love eating soups the next day for lunch too.
I had a great photo of this soup on file, but lost a bunch of my photos yesterday when I was trying to clean up my files..........

CURRIED LENTIL SOUP

2 cup organic green lentils
1 cup organic red lentils
1 Tbsp organic coconut oil
1 tsp organic black mustard seeds
1 large organic onion, diced
2 organic bay leaves
3 clove organic garlic, minced
3 Tbsp fresh organic ginger, minced
1 tsp organic cumin, ground
2 tsp organic coriander, ground
1 tsp organic paprika, ground
1/2 tsp organic turmeric, ground
2 organic carrots, chopped
5 leaves organic kale, chopped
2 cups organic butternut squash, cut into small cubes
1 organic rutabaga, cut into small cubes
8-10 cups organic chicken or vegetable stock or water
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Method:  If possible, allow lentils to soak in water overnight with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.  Drain and rinse.  Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onions for a couple of minutes and then add the mustard seeds.  When they pop, add the carrots, squash, rutabaga, ginger, and remaining spices and cook for 5 minutes.  Stir in the garlic, lentils and stock.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat and cook partially covered until the lentils are soft.  Stir in the kale, salt and pepper to taste, and cook until soft, about 10-15 minutes.  

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