I had some friends visiting last night and after the Thanksgiving holiday not too much food in the fridge for a meal. I found a bag of carrots, half an onion, and a potato in the fridge and looked around at my grains, spotting the green lentils. The best thing to make on such short notice (no need for soaking) was lentil soup. I love soups because you can pretty much throw in whatever you want, whatever is lying around and it always turns out delicious and nutritious!
Ingredients (all estimates):
- ~ 1/2 cup reserved beet juice from steaming beets last week (you could use any kind of broth if you have it or just water if you don’t, this just adds some more flavor)
- ~1/2 cup red cooking wine
- 2 Tbs tomato paste
- 1 diced cooking potato
- 3 diced carrots
- ~1/2 cup diced yellow onion
- 1 1/3 cup green lentils
- lots of water
- spices: see below
Directions:
In a large soup pot heat the olive oil, toss in the onions and let cook until they are soft and translucent. Then add and saute the potatoes and carrots. Dissolve the tomato paste in the red wine and add along with the broth/beet juice to the pot. Throw in one bay leaf and add your lentils. Now add enough water to fully cover all your ingredients (lentils soak up a lot of water). At this point or flavor I add spicy paprika, salt & pepper, a dash of oregano and a dash of cinnamon. Cover it and let it simmer until the lentils are tender. Enjoy!
Gastronomikal 
Hmm..I never would have thought to add cinnamon…good idea! Was it good?
Delicious! I love throwing a dash of cinnamon in anything where ground red meat is involved and most things where tomato and red wine are used. Plus the time of the year just seemed right for it 🙂 Give it try and let me know if you like it or not, just a dash though because I’m sure you can imagine it can easily overpower.
SOOO good!! I had the pleasure of eating it:)