After dropping my youngest daughter at the high school (son is down with what may be the flu) I returned home to get that soup in the crockpot and eat my daily bowl of oatmeal before heading out to my own job.
On my way home from work I stopped at the Farmer's Market for a few things. I am doing the pantry challenge as much as possible but we were just about out of fresh produce and I needed to restock. I spent $28.02 and bought a small bunch of fresh parsley, a small bunch of fresh basil (both needed for the vinaigrette added at the end of the soup's cooking time), an 8 lb bag of navel oranges, a bunch of bananas, 6 turnips, a cabbage, a large eggplant (needed for a new soup recipe I'm trying next week), three red bell peppers, a bunch of celery, 2 lbs. carrots, 1 lb. baby carrots, a container of sun dried tomatoes, and a jar of locally produced cherry jam. Next weekend I will need to pick up laundry detergent and fabric softener as well as items needed for my youngest son's birthday party but this should complete all the regular food shopping I need to do this month. Along with the soup I'd planned on some homemade honey wheat rolls but had 8 Italian dinner rolls leftover from lunch service that I could not reheat and use again so I brought them home to have with the soup!
Mediterranean Lentil Soup (Easy Home Cooking cookbooklet)2 tbl. oil
1 large onion, diced
1 stalk celery, chopped (we like more celery so I used three)
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes (I used 2 14.5 oz cans)
1 1/2 cup dried lentils (soaked for 1 hour, drained and rinsed, I never do this step)
1 tbl. tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
6 cups beef broth
(I add some freshly ground pepper as well)
In a medium skillet heat oil, add celery, onion, garlic and cook for 5 minutes to soften them up. Add to a slow cooker along with tomatoes, lentil, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaves and beef broth. Set crockpot to low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. OR you can skip the veggie sauteing and the soaking of the lentils and cook on low 8 1/2 hours or on high 4 1/2 hours until the lentils are tender. I usually do the 8 1/2 s on low.
Vinaigrette:
3/4 cup packed fresh basil
2 tbl. chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbl. red wine vinegar ( I prefer to use a white balsamic in my soup)
Combine vinaigrette ingredients in a blender or food processor (I use my little bullet) until smooth. Stir into soup just before serving.
Love lentil soup! Perfect weather for that here now, as we are bracing for a snow/ice/cold rain storm. School/work looks really iffy for tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting and sharing that recipe.