This is a great recipe designed to use up some veggies from your garden or CSA box! It does call for Sumac as a spice. If you don’t own sumac, you need to buy it! The best way I can describe it for those unfamiliar is that it’s like if sour dough bread were a spice. Once you get it, you will find yourself adding it to everything!
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon good quality olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced carrot
- 1 long red sweet pepper (can substitute with large bell pepper), diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 sauce tomatoes diced (can substitute for two regular garden tomatoes)
- 5 cups water
- 2 bouillon cubes of Edward & Sons Not-Chick’n
- 1 cup dried brown or green lentils
- 2 teaspoons ground sumac
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup plant milk blended with 1 cup raw cashews
Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot or dutch oven. Add the onion, celery, carrot, and pepper and sauté on medium heat while you mince the garlic. Add the garlic to the pot and sauté for a couple minutes more
- Add the water and diced tomato to the pot.
- Add the lentils, bouillon cubes, and all other spices. Give the pot a stir. For the salt, start with 1 1/2 teaspoons and then add more at the end if needed. Some water will evaporate while simmering and that will change the salt ratio by the time the soup is ready. When I made this I just did 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and thought it tasted good, but if you really love salt you’ll probably want more.
- Blend 1 cup of plant milk with 1 cup of raw cashews. This will produce your “heavy cream”. Add it to the pot.
- Lentils take about 40 minutes to cook. I like to let this soup simmer for about an hour to make sure everything is good and cooked. If you simmer longer than that you may need to add more water.