I’m telling you, I am really enjoying and always looking forward to Saturdays because I am getting into the habit of cooking lots of goodness for my family.

I am enjoying cooking and eating soups. Soup is such a nourishing meal and they are easy to make. It’s really just a matter of throwing some veges and meat into a pot with some stock and cooking them slowly for an afternoon.

This weekend I made a lentil soup. We eat a lot of lentils and I remember my parents making a delicious lemon lentil soup throughout my childhood. I really must ask them for that recipe. For this one I did a search at Taste.com and there were many to choose from. I wanted a simple soup and ended up cooking this:

Lentil Soup
ingredients
:: 2 onions, diced
:: handful of shredded ham, diced
:: 2 carrots, diced
:: 2 stalks celery (including leaves), diced
:: 1/2 red capsicum, diced
:: 1-2 Tbsp tomato paste
:: 2 cups tinned diced tomatoes
:: 2 400g tinned lentils
:: 1 litre chicken stock

method
:: in oil, sautée onions and ham
:: add celery, capsicum and carrot and cook until softened
:: stir in tomato paste
:: add tomatoes, stock and lentils
:: simmer for 3-4 hours

Rated ‘lots and lots of yums’ by Monte.

Serves 6-8