'Cure-All Lentil Soup' from "Sweet Potato Soul" by Jenné Claiborne for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

My friend Debra of Eliot's Eats reviewed Sweet Potato Soul: 100 Easy Vegan Recipes for the Southern Flavors of Smoke, Sugar, Spice, and Soul by Jenné Claiborne last month and I thought it sounded like a cookbook I would love. Since I am trying to buy fewer books, I checked out the library e-book to give it a try.

It's a great book and there were a lot of recipes that looked tempting including the Coconut Corn Chowder that Debra tried, but since I am trying to kick a cold, the Cure-All Lentil Soup and its mix of ingredients and spices was calling to me. 

Jenné Claiborne says that calls this soup the "cure-all" because of how nutritious it is. She notes that she modeled it after her Nana's chicken soup--replacing the chicken with lentils. I added extra potato because I had two Yukon Golds I needed to use and used the smaller Puy green lentils because I had them in my pantry and like the firmer texture they add.
 

Cure-All Lentil Soup 
Very Slightly Adapted from Sweet Potato Soul by Jenné Claiborne
(Serves 4 to 6)

2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 cup diced yellow onion
1 cup diced celery
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup diced carrots
1 unpeeled white potato, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used 2 Yukon Gold potatoes)
1 cup dried green lentils, sorted and rinsed (I used 1 1/4 cups green puy lentils)
8 cups good vegetable stock 
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp celery seeds
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp soy sauce (I used tamari which is gluten-free)
1 tsp white pepper
salt to taste

In a large heavy-bottomed soup pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery and garlic and saute until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the carrots, potato, lentils, and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, then add the fennel seeds, thyme, celery seeds, sage and bay leaf. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.

Season the soup with the soy sauce and white pepper and season to taste with salt if needed. Serve hot. (Deb says: I don't think it necessarily needs a topping but I added some garlic-pepper crispy onions-just because.) 

Notes/Results: A really tasty soup. I make different lentil soups regularly and this one is simple but has lots of flavor. I liked the fennel and celery seed in particular--I add celery salt and celery seed to a lot of dishes and along with the thyme and sage it is a great combination. The soy sauce or tamari adds a little pop of flavor, much like the dash of vinegar I sometimes add to lentil soups. I do prefer the puy lentils to your standard green-brown variety. They cost more but they hold their shape so well, it adds a lot to the texture. With a healthy dose of fiber, B-vitamins, potassium, zinc and the punch of garlic, I don't know if this soup will actually cure my cold, but I'll eat well for its duration.

Let's take a look in the Souper Sunday's kitchen!

Shaheen of Allotment2Kitchen shared a salad of Three Coloured Pasta with Roasted Squash and Sage. She said, "The three coloured pastas are: tomato, spinach and plain. It bulked up with roasted squash and sage and a good grating of vegan cheese. The sage fragrant hits you quite strong, but the flavour not so much. I didn't mind this Three Coloured Pasta Salad, it made a change from the usual tomato, cucumber and black olive one that  I often make. But D was not that keen. I think he would have preferred if I had made a sauce of the butternut squash to smother the pasta, but he still ate it. Good man." 

A mistake at a restaurant caused Tina of Squirrel Head Manor to make this Cheeseburger Soup. She said, "We ordered a cheeseburger and were told by the waiter it would only be 30 cents more for a double. "No, thank you," we said, "we only want a single patty." So what does he return with?  Two double cheeseburgers.  It was way too much and we could have probably split one but....there you have it. Almost impossible to eat as you would a regular burger and we cut it in pieces. Obviously that was more meat than we wanted or could eat. So I brought home the equivalent of one serving and used the meat for soup."

Thanks for joining me at Souper Sundays this week Shaheen & Tina!

About Souper Sundays:

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on the post you link up to be included.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (optional).

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!