As a recovering vegetarian, Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook is in regular rotation around here.  When I’m in a panic and don’t know what to make for dinner I often make this from-memory, tweaked-for-my-family version of her Lentil soup. It’s really simple since it only uses one pot, takes one hour and you don’t need to presoak the lentils.

In addition to being delicious, lentils make a such a nice naturally iron rich first food for babies. This soup was one of baby Robin’s first solid foods around the middle of his first year and he gobbles it right up off a tiny vintage baby spoon every time I serve it.

3 cups of dry red Canadian lentils

8 cups of water (sometimes I use a cup or two of chicken stock if I have some around)

1 glug of olive oil

2 stalks of celery with leaves

1 peeled yam

3 peeled carrots

8-10 cloves of garlic

2 large shallots or onions

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons of sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of thyme

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper

red wine vinegar

Start by giving your lentils a quick rinse and strain under cold water.
Then combine your lentils, water, olive oil and salt in a large thick bottomed pot and bring to a boil. Once things are boiling, lower the heat to the lowest setting, cover and gently simmer for 30 minutes.  While the lentils are cooking you have plenty of time to prepare the rest of the ingredients and remind your children to use gentle touches.

Now you start your chopping. Soup is pretty much all about chopping.  I have some new cutco knives and I have to say having the right knives has greatly improved my mood while making dinner with littles at my feet or on my back.

I cut all my veggies into slices and then smash the 10 cloves of garlic with the side of my knife before cutting it finely. I like to think that the more garlic and onions in a recipe, the more love. The more smashing of garlic, the more fun.

After your lentils have been simmering slowly for 30 minutes you can add all your chopped up vegetables and herbs. Turn the heat up a little bit and gently cook, partially covered for another 30 minutes.

When you’re ready to eat, drizzle the top of each bowl with red wine vinegar and enjoy.

This recipe is my entry in the Love Your Lentils Canada Challenge.  I’d love it if you could take a second and vote for my soup over at  http://www.loveyourlentils.ca/recipes/gentle-lentil-soup

It’s winter and so I want to go into hibernation mode just as the seed business starts to ramp up. So here’s the answer to that haunting question; What’s for dinner? It’s “I’ll just make that Jamie Oliver recipe, you know, the one with the chickpeas but with more onions and some carrots” soup. We’ve just shared this tonight with the Lovely Clara who came and helped fill an overwhelming amount of seed packs (check out clarabeelavery.com for some great illustrations and musings).

Pasta e Ceci from Jamie Oliver’s Italy but from memory since we make it all the time and with carrots for colour and more onions since its winter.

2 onions

2 carrots

a few sticks of celery

1 clove of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

rosemary

2 cans of chickpeas

2 ¼ cups of stock

2 cups ditalini pasta

sea salt and black pepper

a handful of chopped basil and spinach in each bowl

I like that this soup cooks really slow and gently. Life is really distracting and full of good things like a busy business, 3 year old shenanigans, and a bouncing baby boy. So I have a tendency to walk off in the middle of making dinner.

This soup cooks long and slow, filling the house with a great oniony soup smell and won’t burn if you have to go nurse the baby for an hour.

Over low heat in a nice thick bottomed pot combine a few glugs of olive oil with finely chopped onions, carrots and celery. Cook slow and gently with the lid on for at least 20 minutes until the onions are clear.

Add 2 cans of well-rinsed chickpeas, stir it all up, and cover with stock or water (according to your level of vegan/vegetarianism). Cook over low heat for another 30 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, remove about half the soup and whizz it up in a food processor, blender, or use an immersion blender. Once it’s properly whizzed, throw it back in the pot.

Add your little pasta, we like ditalini, the little “o”s. You throw it in dry, add some salt and pepper, maybe some dried basil from last summer, and keep simmering gently for another 15 minutes or so until the pasta’s cooked.

Serve it up with some torn or chopped up basil and spinach. So delicious and really just a bunch of chopping and slow easy cooking.

Mmm Moosewood.  Mollie Katzen’s Classic cookbooks are all well worn around these parts.  I’ve mentioned them here before, but somehow forgot to share our favourite soup during last year’s soup swap recipe posts.  

The Moosewood Vegetable Soup from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest
and it’s many variations are a regular part of our fall meals around here.  There’s a big pot of it boiling on the stove right now for our dinner so there’s no time like the present to share this classic.

As the title suggests, this is a basic vegetable soup recipe with  bunch of great suggestions on how to mix it up.  This is our favourite way to make it, with a gazillion mushrooms and a rainbow of carrots, but it changes seasonally.

Boil together until the potatoes are just tender:

4 cups vegetable stock
1 large potato sliced thinly
a dash of sea salt

Next you’ll need


2 1 1 1 1tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 large white or yellow onion chopped
1 large clove of garlic crushed
1 teaspoon of salt
4 carrots, we use a mix of orange and purple carrots
a handful of button mushrooms
a bunch of enoki mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon each; thyme, savoury, marjoram, basil
freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat a heavy skillet, add butter, olive oil, onions, garlic and salt and sauté on medium heat for 5 minutes or until onions clear. Add the remaining finely sliced vegetables and herbs.  Continue stirring for 8-10 minutes.  Add the skillet full to your pot of stock and potatoes. Simmer for another 20-30 minutes.

Before serving we add little italian soup noodles, especially the alphabet ones.  This is how my mother made it and now how we make it for our family. 
You need to cook the noodles separately or else its a big mess.  So cook one cup of soup noodles until al dente. Drain, rinse and put them in the bowls.  Serve the soup on top of the noodles, mix gentle and enjoy.

We’re sending some over to a some friends with new babies, so we send the noodles separately with the instructions written on the lid of the jar.
Now I’m off to eat some.  I can’t wait for a reasonable dinner hour.

So many good soups!  I am actually eating this one as I type this great veggie soup recipe out for you.
Rebecca too, but her’s has some brown rice baby cereal mixed into it to make it easier to eat.

Poppy’s Curried Carrot & Apple Soup

2 tsp sunflower oil
1tbsp curry powder
11/4lb (500g) chopped carrots
1 large chopped onion
1 large chopped apple
4 cups (1L) vegetable stock
salt & pepper
chopped parsley

Heat oil in a large, heavy pan and gently fry curry powder for 2-3 minutes.

Add chopped carrots, onion, and apple.  Stir until well coated with the curry powder, then cover the pan.

Cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes, until softened.

Spoon the vegetables into food processor or blender.  Add half the stock and blend until smooth.

Return to pan and pour in remaining stock.  Bring soup to a boil and adjust seasoning to taste.  Garnish with parsley.

So Delicious!