Lentil Soup

Tonight I did a bit of the “secret cooking” I mentioned in a previous post. To get ready for a great week, and to use up some leftover ingredients from last week’s menus, I made this most wonderful lentil soup.

If you do not own Great Food Fast: 250 Recipes for Easy, Delicious Meals All Year Long, by Martha Stewart Living Magazine, I highly recommend you rush out and buy it tomorrow. Why? Simply put, this is the perfect cookbook! Perfect? Yes, perfect.

First, it’s organized by season, encouraging you to cook with what is fresh, flavorful and affordable. Next, it features a full-page color photograph for every single recipe. Amazing! I love to see what a dish is supposed to look like, and I’ve found I’m much more likely to experiment with a new recipe if I can see what the final product looks like. If that wasn’t enough, for each recipe you get hands-on prep time, total cooking time, and, in the back of the book, complete nutritional information. Lastly, every recipe is intended to be simple and fast, making it the ideal cookbook for everyday meal planning.

Great Food Fast was also a gift from my mother-in-law, Lorraine, and it has made a huge impact on how I cook on a day-to-day basis. It has encouraged me to get out of the rut of making the same five or six weeknight meals without forcing me to spend too much extra time in the kitchen. I have given this to almost everyone I’m close with because I think it’s so wonderful. Buy one now! (No, I do not work for Martha Stewart).

So, the soup. I started making this because a) lentils are an inexpensive protein for lunches and b) it’s a great use of just a little bit of leftover bacon. I’ve modified the recipe only slightly, adding a 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes when adding the chicken broth, water and lentils, for additional veggie oomph and flavor. Also, if you decide to make this, spring for the imported tomato paste that comes in a toothpaste-like tube... much more intense flavor (Sophia likes to sample it every time I make this) and it doesn’t require you to deal with the inevitable leftovers from the little can.

The soup has wonderful, smoky flavor, is hearty enough to satisfy Benji and makes a generous enough pot for lunch twice during the week for all three of us. An instant favorite!