Lentil Roasted Garlic Soup

I’ve decided to start this food blog because I am planning a wedding  for August 2013 and for any of you who have done so and were restricted to a pretty limited budget know that you must make some cuts in order to save. I want to get my butt in gear, cook more, and resist the urge to go out to eat and spend the money I should be saving. 

I love going out to eat.  I absolutely love.it. I love going out and trying a dish I have never had before and having someone else make it for me.  But like I said, I need to save some cash if I am going to have the wedding I want.  While I do enjoy eating out, I also like to cook.  I’ve become quite good in the past few years as my fiance is in law school and I have taken on most of the cooking.  Although I will say that he isn’t half bad himself.

I do not like making prepared foods from boxes or cans, so I’ve had to acquire some techniques to make the freshest food I possibly can. 

As I have already become an avid cook I have many spices and cookware to cook almost anything. I also have a whole slew of cookbooks that have been sitting on my shelf that I would like to dive into.  For that reason, I am going to focus on cooking from cookbooks with the occasional blog recipe thrown in.  This blog is a way for me to adhere to the promise I am making to myself to cook more and eat out less.

And so we begin…

When I was eighteen years old I did AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.  I was on a team with twelve other corps members and each night one or two people from the team had to cook for the rest of us.  One of my team mates made lentil soup.  It was one of the most delicious soups I had ever tasted.  The soup was so good that it was the start of my obsession with lentils. It was the first time I had ever had lentils in fact!

This Lentil Roasted Garlic soup hails from The Daily Soup Cookbook. If you are on the fence about garlic then perhaps this isn’t the soup for you, although you can probably make it without adding any garlic at all and it would still be delicious!

I decided on this soup because I was looking around my kitchen wondering what I might be able to make for dinner without having to go food shopping.  I thought of this recipe because I had a big bag of lentils waiting to be cooked sitting on my shelf. Luckily, I had everything else that was needed!  That’s what is nice about this recipe: you probably have everything in your kitchen already to make it! What’s also nice is it is vegan, low fat, and gluten-free.  

Some of the ingredients

Cooking up the carrots, onions and celery

Adding in the rosemary, bay leaves, pepper, and salt

After adding the lentils, stock, tomatoes and tomato paste

Peeling the roasted garlic cloves

Pureed roasted garlic and fresh minced garlic

Served with some toasted pita

Lentil Roasted Garlic Soup

Adapted from The Daily Soup Cookbook

Makes 12 cups

1 whole head garlic 2 tbs olive oil 1 large Spanish onion, chopped 2 celery stalks, chopped 2 carrots, peeled and chopped 2 tsp dried rosemary 2 bay leaves 1 tsp kosher salt ½ tsp black pepper

1 pound French lentils (green or brown), rinsed and picked over to remove debris 8 cups Basic Vegetable Stock (I used Better than Bouillon) 1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes, drained and diced 3 tbs tomato paste 1 tbs balsamic vinegar 1 tsp minced fresh garlic ¼ cup chopped fresh Italian Parsley

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Wrap the whole head of garlic in foil and roast in the oven for 15 minutes, until tender.  When cool enough to handle, remove the clove from the sin and puree in a food processor or blender, set aside until ready to use.
3. Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Add onion, celery, and carrots and sweat for 4 minutes until tender.
4. Add the rosemary, bay leaves, salt, and pepper and stir to coat the vegetables.
5. Add the lentils stock, tomatoes, and tomato paste.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, partially cover, and simmer for 1 hour, until lentils are tender.
6. Stir in the pureed roasted garlic, vinegar, and fresh garlic.  Simmer for 2 minutes to heat through.
7. To serve, remove the bay leaves, ladle the soup into bowls, and top with chopped parsley.

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