Lentil Soup

Adapted from Jane Brody's Good Food Book.  Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients, this is really quick and easy.  If you have a food processor, chop the onions with the blade and use the grating attachment for the carrots.  You can use homemade broth or canned broth.  You may want to dilute canned broth with water and omit the salt.

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 large or 3 small onions, chopped
• 3 carrots coarsely grated or thinly sliced if you prefer
• ¾ teaspoon of marjoram
• ¾ teaspoon of thyme
• 28 oz can of tomatoes, crushed or coarsely chopped, with their juice
• 7 cups broth (beef, chicken or vegetable)
• 1 ½ cups of dried lentils, rinsed and picked over
• ½ teaspoon of salt (if desired)
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper or more to taste
• 6 oz dry white wine
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• ½ cup rice (optional)

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan (I use a size E round Le Creuset cast iron casserole) and sauté the onions, carrots, marjoram and thyme, stirring the vegetables for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, broth and lentils.  Bring the soup to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for about one hour in all.  Add the rice, if desired for a thicker soup, about 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
3. Add salt (if desired), pepper, wine and parsley.  Simmer for a few more minutes and serve.

Variations

There are lots of things you could try to vary this recipe according to your personal taste.  For example, Jean thought of adding the rice.  Recently, we had some dinosaur kale that needed to be used up.  So, we chopped it into post-it note sized pieces and threw it in soon after the soup started to simmer.  It was great!  Other leafy green vegetables would probably work (and so good for you), but may not withstand such a long cooking time, so add them later.