Post-holiday food should never be about repentance. It should be about deliciousness and healthy renewal _ clean eating at its best.
That's why, after New Year's Eve revelry followed by an indulgent New Year's Eve lunch (on the heels of Christmas feasts and other holiday parties), what I craved for dinner was a warming bowl of wholesome, chunky, vegan lentil-and-vegetable soup.
Happily, I'd created one a couple of weeks before _ one that my family went crazy for. I decided to whip up something like it again.
It's very easy to put together. The only work is chopping a few aromatic vegetables (onion, carrot, garlic, maybe celery) and opening a can of tomatoes. (Make sure your tomatoes don't have sugar in them, or the soup won't be so detoxifying.) Saute the vegetables in a little olive oil, add turmeric, coriander and herbs, then the lentils, tomatoes and water. Then just let it simmer for 50 minutes or so, till the lentils are tender and all the flavors come together.
The first one I made involved green lentils; next time I used half black lentils and half red lentils _ which are softer when cooked than the green or black ones. For version 2.0, I also boosted the turmeric _ which is thought to have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and added ginger, for a slightly different (more Indian, maybe) flavor.
Both were delicious.
It's a soup that can be all things to all people _ or at least many kinds of people. It's vegan. (Consider it for a meatless Monday!) It's gluten-free. The only processed ingredients are minimally processed (a can of tomatoes and the ground spices), so it's very clean. It's extremely forgiving and versatile. Want to add some chopped broccoli or cauliflower, diced turnips, or last night's leftover Brussels sprouts? Go ahead. It's infinitely riff-able.
It's so soul-satisfying that carnivores probably won't miss the meat. My son Wylie, home for college for winter break, had three bowls in one sitting. If you don't mention it's healthy, no one will be the wiser.
Best of all, you can whip it up in a flash. Putting it together takes about 10 minutes, 15 max. In less than an hour, it's done.
Cooking for just one or two? Make a batch, eat some tonight, then take it to work later this week in a Thermos for lunch.
