l.a.a.a.cuisine

it'll feed your family for a week

so i haven't cooked for a while. lots of traveling tends to make me very lazy in the kitchen. monday, i tried -- really tried!! -- to make the lentil soup (stew, really) i'm about to talk about, but i coudn't do it. we went to green tango instead, and it was good.

tuesday, i tried again. and i succeeded. this soup is really not very hard to make, and -- as i said before -- it's really more of a stew, nice and hearty and chunky so that you don't really have to make anything else for dinner. it was excellent with some whole wheat sourdough from whole foods.

the recipe is from diana shaw's almost vegetarian. with a few lazy modifications by moi.

ingredients:

1 Tbsp (estimated) extra virgin olive oil
1 large white or yellow onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 large celery stalks, including leaves, coarsely chopped, or 1 small fennel bulb, including fronds, coarsely chopped (i used fennel this time, but i've done it either way)
3 cups torn washed spinach leaves (i used baby spinach from a bag because i'm lazy)
1.5 quarts vegetable or chicken broth (again, i've done it both - and both are fine)
1 cup drained canned tomatoes pureed in a food processor (usually i do this, but this time i just dumped in a can of crushed tomatoes. again - all was well)
1 cup uncooked green lentils
1/4 cup uncooked white rice
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup minced fresh italian parsley

directions:

1. heat the olive oil in a large pot. add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery or fennel, and saute over medium heat until everything's very soft, about 20 minutes.

2. stir in the spinach and cook, stirring, until it turns bright green, about 2 minutes more

3. add the vegetable broth, tomatoes (pureed or not), and lentils. stir well, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes over medium low heat.

4. stir in the rice, cover again, and let the mixture simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes more.

5. combine parmesan and parsley, and stir it into the soup, blending throughout. season with pepper. ladle and serve (i also like shaving some extra parmesan and putting it on the top of each bowl. as i've mentioned, i like cheese.)

bon appetit!

posted by sarah (SHU) @ 6:17 PM