Healthy and Hearty Vegetable Lentil Soup with Ginger

It's a well known fact that vegetables are good for you and although there are mixed feelings about that in my house, I love my vegetables. I don't wait until the winter months to enjoy soup, I make soup on rainy days, the weekends, days that I know the AC will be cranked up in the office. Did I mention I also love hot weather, and do not enjoy the cold at all. This could possibly be the reason I enjoy soup as much as I do. I absolutely love lentil soup; my grandmother makes it the best of course. Little bits of bacon and ham, hearty potatoes thick and hearty and just so tasty!

Recently I started a plant based “cleanse” where I only eat veggies (except potatoes and corn), fruit, brown rice and lentils for 21 days and then slowly reintroduce food to see what bothers me and what doesn’t. This means, no meat, no dairy (I love cheese!) no processed foods including canned food, no seasoning other than sea salt, vinegar and olive oil and only water and protein shakes. After about 5 days I was sick of plain cauliflower and broccoli for lunch and remembered my grandmothers lentil soup. Of course! Just make a few substitutions, add ginger… because that is my new favorite thing to do and viola! Amazing hearty and healthy vegetable lentil soup with ginger.

You will need:

2 Cups of Lentils rinsed

3 Cups Vegetable Broth

5 medium Carrots

3 Stalks of Celery

1 Bag of frozen spinach

1 Medium Yellow Onion

4 Cloves of Garlic

¼ Cup Minced Fresh Ginger

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Enough water to cover the vegetables

Directions:

1. Add the lentils and vegetable broth in a pot and bring to a boil on medium heat
2. Cut up the carrots and celery into bite size pieces and add to the lentils and broth
3. Mince the garlic and ginger and put in a small pan with the olive oil
4. Roughly chop the onion into bite size pieces and add to the ginger and garlic
5. Cook until the onions are soft but not brown stirring constantly careful not to burn the garlic
6. Add the onion, garlic and ginger to the pot of lentils and broth
7. Allow to boil for about 15-20 minutes until the carrots and celery are cooked to your liking
8. Add the bag of spinach and allow to cook for an additional 2-3 minutes
9. Remove from heat, allow to cool and enjoy!

I didn't add any salt to the mixture because it was already bursting with flavor, but I did add a little sea salt when serving.

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