Filed under: Vegan Entrees | Tags: clean food, lentil, soup, stone soup suppers, terry walters, vegan
Alas, here is another soup recipe. I know we must seems like crazy soup people around here… and our house must smell like Katrina Devort’s from Juno… but I tell you, the smell emanating from our home last night could probably make angels sing. This relatively simple combination of spices, sauces and veggies with lentils made for one of those meals that will get you merrily through the cold winter & suddenly wishing it was cold out in July so that you could have more lentil soup. I think I just need a blog wholly devoted to soups and stews, because there is honestly nothing better & more filling when its cold out & with all the holiday craziness it’s so nice to spend 20 minutes cutting up a bunch of veggies & throwing some spices and beans in a pot & letting it do all the work for you while you wrap gifts, trim the tree, & re-re-re watch Love Actually.
This recipe comes yet again from my go-to healthy vegan cookbook, Terry Walters – Clean Food who also happens to have a new book out, Clean Start! Clean Start has 100 more exciting, healthy, whole food filled recipes for everyone from the beginning cook, to those who have been around the vegan block a few times. I know what I’ll be asking someone for for Christmas! The thing about Clean Food that makes it my go to cookbook over all the others is that it is organized by season. I don’t have to search through a whole book of recipes for something that will fit my winter fancy, I can just flip to the Winter section (of which all the pages are light blue) and easily find something to make that utilizes the veggies growing that time of year.
Lentil Soup (adapted from Clean Food)
1 thumb-size piece of kombu (a sea veggie that infuses foods with alkalinizing minerals, iron, and iodine, also tenderizes legumes & reduces their “gaseous properties”)
2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 cups chopped tomatoes (I used canned whole tomatoes & added the sauce, too)
1/4 cup red wine
4 cups dried lentils
6 cups vegetable broth, 6 cups water (or any combination of 12)
1 T rice vinegar
2 T maple syrup
2 T molasses
1 T tamari
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Put your piece of kombu in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes. Once soft, rinse & mince. Set aside. In a large cast iron or soup pot saute your garlic & onion until translucent. Add your chopped celery, carrots, tomatoes, and red wine. Rinse your lentils & add along with your 12 cups of liquid (any combination of broth & water). Add your vinegar, molasses, maple syrup, tamari, kombu and salt/pepper. Stir to combine & bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer & continue simmer for two hours. Stir occasionally. Adjust your s&p before serving if needed! Terry makes a suggestion that if you want the soup to yield a more decadent flavor (I mean could it get any better already?) add 2 T dutch process cocoa powder when you add the maple syrup. Once you try the soup without it, you’ll think… jeez this would be good with that cocoa powder, too!
I also have a bit of exciting news to share! Starting in January, I will begin hosting either a monthly or bi-monthly meat-free potluck series entitled Stone Soup Suppers! I have been working with my good friend Adam Wagner on the concept and promotion of the event, and we have finally set a date for the first dinner to be January 30! I’m very interested in bringing together the vegetarian and vegan community in Cleveland, and believe that if this is successful it will be a way to build friendships & relationships over clean, healthy, cruelty-free foods. I just can’t wait! We’re going to have limited seating of 12 guests for the first dinner, and the location is still TBD. I’m trying to find a unique/free spot, and am looking to move the dinner to a different location each time. This is an image of our promo poster for the event!
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[...] onion soup, the curried sweet potato & black bean stew, oh and then there was that delicious lentil soup, and the apple squash one, too.. soo many soups! So when we had bookoodles of leftover tortillas [...]
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