Red Lentil and Hearty Vegetable Soup

Written By: Rosemary Seguin CNP, NNCP

With the winter snow finally upon us (at least in the GTA region), a wholesome nourishing soup is one of my favourite meals to prepare and eat! After a long day it’s a wonderful meal to sit down to, enjoy with some whole grain “crusty” bread and easily get a huge array of essential vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbs and healthy fats all in one meal!

If you think you’re not particularly good at making soup or if you’ve never made a soup before, I have great news for you…don’t worry about it! Soup is way easier than you think and it can be very easy and fast to put together, I promise.

If I can whip one up in a gif anyone can! All you need is the right ingredients and you’re ready to rock.

Today I’m sharing with you one of my all time favourite soups. It’s the first soup I ever created using a bunch of stuff I had in my kitchen at the time and I thought, let’s experiment and throw a bunch of totally awesome, highly nutritious foods together and see what happens. Well voila, it was a big success even with my 3 year old. So I’m going to share my super “secret” special soup recipe with all of you in hopes that it will become a main dish in your house for years to come! 

Remember, the best part about soup is that you can really use anything you like. If there is a particular vegetable or other ingredient in the recipe you don't like don’t be afraid to substitute it with a different vegetable or spice that you love.

Prep time: 20min

Cooking time: 25min

Yield: enough to feed your family, have leftovers and maybe even freeze some for later!

Ingredients:

2 cups dry red lentils   

2 Tbsp Coconut oil or Grape seed oil for sauteing

2 medium sized red or vidalia onions

4 cloves of garlic pressed or chopped

4 organic carrots, washed and coarsely chopped (no need to peel if organic)

3 organic yams, washed and coarsely chopped (no need to peel if organic – lots of nutrients in the skin)

3 celery stalks (sticks) coarsely chopped

1 bunch of collards, washed an coarsely chopped  

1 pkg or organic firm tofu, copped into bite sized cubes (optional)

1 tbsp dried basil

1-2 tsp sea salt (depending on your taste)

½ tsp or more fresh ground black pepper (depending on your taste)

1 tsp dried oregano

1 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Preparation:

1)      Soak lentils in warm water for 20min (while these are soaking you will prepare the rest of the soup).

2)      Heat oil in a large soup pot and saute the onions and garlic until onions are opaque and soft.

3)      Add in the carrots, yams and celery.

4)      Drain the lentils and give them a good rinse.

5)      Add the lentils to the soup and give all the ingredients a good stir.

6)      Add just enough water to cover all the ingredients – always use purifed water when making soup.

7)      Add in all the spices and parsley.

8 )      Cover pot, bring the water to just before a boil, then turn down to low and simmer for 20min or until you can pierce the vegetables with a fork.

9)      Turn the soup off, add in the collards, give the soup a stir and cover for 5 additional minutes. The collards will wilt down with the heat from the soup and you wont destroy any of the the wonderful vitamins and minerals in the collards!

10)    Use an immersion blender to puree the soup .

11)   Top with some cubed tofu for some added protein and calcium (optional) and serve with some crusty bread and you’ve got yourself a complete balanced healthy meal for the whole family – and lots extra for freezing or leftovers!

What’s your favourite soup? Share it with us in the comments below, we’d love to know!