Red Lentil Soup

Today's lunch is going to be Lentil Soup. I have red lentils to use today. I have looked at several recipes and some call for tomatoes, but since I use tomatoes in many of my recipes, I'm making it without tomatoes. My favorite way to cook is to look at several recipes and then make my own creation using parts of the recipes I look at. An easy way to get a recipe is to google it and you will find more recipes than you can use.

Red Lentil Soup


heat 1 Tbs olive oil
add 2 garlic cloves diced
and 1 onion chopped
Cook for a couple of minutes then
Add 4 stalks of celery chopped
1/8 cup diced hot peppers, any style - I cut up and freeze hot peppers, then use as needed when cooking
1 Cup of chopped carrots - I use baby carrots as that is what I buy to snack on
Cook for about 5 minutes then
Add 1 can of chicken broth or veggie broth
Add 2 Cup of water (you can add more if you want it to be more soupy)
1 bay leaf
2 lemon basil leaves - I have lemon basil growing in my kitchen so added it for fun. It smells so good.
Add 1 Cup of lentils - any color
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp tumeric - see this link for health benefits of tumeric - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/turmeric-health-have-a-happy-new-year_b_798328.html
1/2 tsp cumin - see this link for health benefits of cumin - http://completewellbeing.com/article/small-cumin-big-benefits/

Tumeric and cumin are optional

Cook about 30 minutes - checking on it every 5 minutes or so, to stir and taste to make sure it tastes good to your tastebuds