Fall Lentil Soup
INGREDIENTS
- 8 cups of water – OR – you can use 8 cups of vegetable broth for even more flavorful soup
- 1 cup of chopped carrots
- 1 large Japanese (purple) sweet potato (or regular sweet potato will work too)
- 1 cup of dry lentils
- 3 cups of chopped cabbage
- 1 Tablespoon of garlic powder
- 2 Tablespoons of dried onions
- 2 Tablespoons of dried celery (you could also use a 1/4 up of fresh, chopped celery)
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- 1 teaspoon dry thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
- (Optional) 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- *Salt to taste
DIRECTIONS
*With salt, I actually recommend you add the salt to taste to soup after it’s cooked and you’ve portioned some out in your bowl.
You’ll need a larger pot, like a stock pot.
Chop the carrots (don’t slice them larger than 1/4″ thick) and sweet potato (do the same size pieces as the carrots).
Add your 8 cups of water (or vegetable broth), the carrots, sweet potatoes, all the spices and the 1 cup of lentils to the pot and set it on the stove on high. Keep an eye on it because once it starts to boil, you’ll want to turn it down to low heat (so it will simmer for the rest of the cook time). Set the timer for 20 minutes. You should not have to keep stirring it as the slow simmer will do the work.
Chop up your cabbage into 1″ pieces. When you’re timer goes off add the cabbage to the pot and give it a stir. Set the timer for another 10 minutes.
When the timer goes off again, you’ll want to get a spoon and test the lentils. They should be nice and soft, not crunchy at all. 30 minutes time is usually plenty (and the other veggies will be done as well). If for some reason you’ve still got crunchy lentils, try another 10 minutes and re-check and they should be ready.
This will last in the fridge about 5 days, or you could even freeze it.