Lentil Soup

I took advantage of the gift of quiet and snowy days in early January to pull out some cookbooks I collected many years ago. One of my treasured favourites is the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. It contains a recipe for lentil soup that is described as gentle. It is, indeed, simple and gentle . . . and delicious!

There’s something comforting about a pot of soup simmering on the stove on a winter day. I like to put a pot of this soup on, adapted from the Moosewood recipe, at mid-morning so it’s ready in time for lunch.

Ingredients

• 3 cups lentils, rinsed
• 1 quart of homemade vegetable stock (if you don’t have any stock on hand you can just use water)
• 3 cups water
• 6-8 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 medium to large onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 1 quart canned stewed tomatoes
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Basil, to taste. You can use 1 tsp of dried but I find dried basil to be relatively tasteless. I used a chunk of basil from my garden that I chopped and froze in olive oil last summer.
• Salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Place rinsed lentils, water, stock, and salt in pot. Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer very gently for 20-30 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients and continue simmering for another 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve hot. I like to drizzle a bit of balsamic vinegar over mine; Gerry chooses not to.