Green Lentil Soup
1/2 cup diced onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
1/2 cup green lentils (not split, whole lentils)
3 cups vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon whole allspice berries
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon marjoram leaves
1 teaspoon olive oil
Heat a 4 quart saucepan over medium heat, and place the olive oil and onions, garlic and carrots in. Saute the vegetables for about 4 minutes, till the onions look clear. In a tea infuser place the bay leaves, whole peppercorns, and allspice berries. Put the filled tea infuser in the saucepan, making to hook the end onto the pan for easy removal later. Add the cumin, marjoram and the vegetable broth. Stir to mix up all the ingredients again. Add the green lentils and turn the heat down to low and cover. Let this simmer for 45 minutes. After the time is up ladle the soup into a blender and blend until smooth. Divide up between two large bowls and enjoy.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This was really good! Ground allspice worked fine. As did veggie bouillon instead of broth. I only blended half, just because the last time I had a soup where EVERYTHING was blended together, I wasn't a huge fan. The half I blended was still great, but I ended up spreading it on melba toasts and using the leftover peppers from the Bell Pepper Bruschetta (also from this website) to top. I left the rest of the soup without blending and ate it like that - soooo good!
This is quite tasty and very simple to prepare. I didn't really change anything except to add extra garlic.....you can never have too much garlic! :)