Sliced-Veggie Lentil Soup

Make an easy, robust soup that contains four veggies (1/2 pound each of carrots, celery, zucchini, and yellow squash), a 1-pound bag of lentils, and ~8 cups of water and seasonings (or broth). This recipe is a process that's a cross between making my veggie pasta and my short-cut, convenient veggie lentil soup.

• The veggie pasta uses four kinds of fresh vegetables and other ingredients (pasta, mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese).
• The convenient veggie lentil soup uses a vegetable dry-soup packet and lentils.

My pixstrip shows the following image areas:

1. Implements
2. Ingredients (veggies, lentils, fajita seasoning) laid out
3. Washed, trimmed, and sliced veggies
4. Sliced veggies in soup pot
5. Boiling pot of veggies in front, saucepan of lentils in back
6. Soup, ready to ladle out

Implements

• Soup pot and lid
• Ladle
• Kitchen cooking spoon
• Strainer
• Saucepan
• Plate for veggie handling
• Paring knife
• Peeler for carrots
• Temporary bowls for sliced veggies if you want (not shown)

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound each of the following vegetables: carrots, celery, zucchini, yellow squash—washed, trimmed, and sliced
• 1 pound of dry lentils, rinsed and drained
• Seasoning (Fajita seasoning works well. Also ok to refer to lentil package recipe for info.)
• 8 cups water for soup—YMMV for the amount you eventually use.

Instructions

1. Wash, trim, and slice the veggies. (My own favorite slicing device is my Presto Salad Shooter, which I've had since the early 90s.)
2. Pour the veggies and water into the soup pot.
3. Wash and drain the lentils, pour into saucepan with enough water to cover them. (OK, I'm squishy about the total amount of water.)
4. Bring both pots to boil. If appropriate, watch to ensure contents don't boil over. Skim froth as necessary. Pour lentils into the soup pot; turn down heat to simmer. Season to taste.

Note: The heating process can take about an hour. The lentil bag instructions say bring to boil, reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for 35 minutes until lentils are tender.

Post-recipe Thoughts
The veggie preparation (wash, trim, slice) can take longer than anticipated—maybe an hour in addition to another hour for soup boil and simmer. Natural stages to break up the recipe process:

1. Preparing the veggies, lentils
2. Combining, heating, seasoning

As holidays are coming around, omnivores can easily incorporate use of leftover turkey or ham—

• Use broth that you make instead of just water (adjustment for salt as appropriate).
• Add leftover meat (2 cups or more of leftover turkey or ham pieces—you know, mostly oddball sizes that you chop into consistent bites or nibble sizes).

Suggestion: Freeze excess soup in suitable serving size containers so you don't feel compelled to consume it in consecutive days till done.

Veggie Pasta

Up until now, I have titled my recipes with "Convenient". This recipe is a bit less convenient, but it's veggie loaded, and produces 10 servings of 8-ounce portions. You can share with family, company, or you can store leftovers in the freezer (using food wrap, Ziploc bags, etc.) for future convenient meals.

My recipe uses four kinds of vegetables, spaghetti sauce, pasta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, and a little bit of oil for separating the cooked pasta. The graphic provides a visual cue of the ingredients and stages of preparation.

Ingredients (guide for types and quantity—YMMV)

• 1/2 half pounds each of celery, carrots, zucchini, and crookneck squash, sliced
• 12 ounces of dry pasta
• 28-ounce jar of spaghetti sauce
• 8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese (minimum amount)

Utensils

• Dutch oven or pan large enough for cooking and stirring stages
• Large mixing bowl
• Medium-large mixing bowl
• Medium-large strainer
• Baking pan (9 x 13)
• Tablespoon
• Measuring cup (1/4 cup or so)
• Large metal or wooden spoon
• Spoon rest

The following descriptions of the images (grid of 5 across and 4 down) can help walk you through the stages of preparation. Preheat the oven to 375° some time before you put the casserole in the oven, or add about another 15 minutes to the baking time.

1. Image 1 through 5 show the initial stage of raw veggie preparation (paring and slicing). I use a Salad Shooter for making fast and consistent slices for cooking.
2. Images 6 and 7 show the pre-processed, non-veggie ingredients and the measuring items.
3. Images 8, 9, and 10 show the pasta-cooking stage. Cook according to box instructions, strain, and stir in enough oil prevent pasta clumpies.
4. Images 11, 12, and 13 show the veggie-cooking stage. Cook about 8 minutes or until your choice of doneness.
5. Images 14 and 15 show the merge stage for the cooked veggies, pasta, and spaghetti sauce.
6. Image 16 shows the preparation before putting all the cooked ingredients and cheeses into the baking pan. Layer the ingredients into the baking pan as follows:
   

   Parmesan (top)
   Mozzarella
   Mix of sauce, pasta, veggies
   Parmesan
   Mozzarella
   Mix of sauce, pasta, veggies (bottom)

7. Image 17 shows the pan with the ingredients, topped by the final Parmesan cheese layer.
8. Image 18 shows the assembled casserole, covered with aluminum foil, ready for it to go into the oven.
9. Image 19 shows the covered casserole in the oven. Bake at 375° for about 40 minutes. YMMV for time.
10. Image 20 shows the finished casserole. Waiting a few minutes for the casserole to cool down a little helps portioning out rectangles with a griddle spatula or cooky spatula.

For other recipes, you can enter "recipe" in the Blogspot search. Or you can download my article catalog and visually scan for yellow rows, which include links to recipe articles.

A Convenient Veggie Lentil Soup

My veggie lentil soup is about as convenient as can be—three or four ingredients, depending on whether the fluid is all water or part water and part soup stock/reconstituted bouillon. Make no bones about it. Well, you can if you want. You can also further increase work time by buying, washing, peeling, and cutting up fresh vegetables. I title each of my recipe articles as "A Convenient" something or another because I emphasize convenience, mostly in minimizing the number of different ingredients. The table below lists the four options; the pixstrip above provides visual aids.

Ingredient/Recipe-size Options

Ingredients	Full		Half
Image in pixstrip	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Dry veggie soup, 0.9 oz packet	2	1	1	1
Lentils, 16-oz. bag	1	1	1/2	1/2
Water	8C	4C	4C	2 1/2 C
Soup stock/reconstituted bouillon	—	4C	—	1 1/2 C
Minimum number of servings	8	8	4	4

Instructions:

1. Pick the recipe option you want to try.
2. Set out the equipment you'll need. (The pixstrip images show the equipment you should have.)
3. Rinse the lentils as instructed on the package.
4. Put the ingredients into a large pot.
5. Heat the ingredients until they come to a rolling boil.
6. Turn the heat down to simmer.
7. Go do something else for about a half hour or so.
8. When you return,
   • Check a lentil or two for the tenderness you want. Add more simmer time if necessary.
   • Taste for seasoning preference. Add more seasoning as you want.
   • If the soup's thicker than you want, add more fluid.

Note: I understated the amount of seasoning needed. It's easier to add more flavoring later than adjust for overseasoning.

November 16, 2015 (update)
If you want to use fresh veggies instead of veggie soup mix, visit "Sliced-Veggie Lentil Soup".

A Convenient Quiche

(Quiche pixstrip retrofitted into article May 18, 2010)

Yesterday, I baked a quiche that requires only 5 ingredients:

• 1 ready-to-bake pie shell with pan
• 2 cups of milk
• 1 packet of dry vegetable soup mix (0.9 oz)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of shredded cheese (jack, cheddar, swiss, or combination)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Stir the dry soup mix and milk in a 4-cup bowl and let the mixture soak for at least 10 minutes.
3. Use a fork to mix the eggs in a separate bowl.
4. Stir the eggs into the soup/milk mixture.
5. Layer 3/4 of the cheese into the pie shell, followed by the eggs/soup/milk, then the rest of the cheese on top. (Note: For my next effort, I'm thinking of doubling the cheese.)
6. Bake for at least an hour; about half-way time, place foil or aluminum pie shield at pie edge to prevent edge overbrowning. (The original recipe states 45 minutes, which I found to be too short.)
7. Test for doneness using a toothpick. If pulled toothpick shows mixture wetness, bake longer.
8. Let the quiche stand at least 10 minutes before cutting it.

This recipe is from "Spring Vegetable Quiche" in The New Woman's Day Cookbook: Simple and Healthy Recipes for Every Occasion, copyright 2006, ISBN 1-933231-01-7 (online version of recipe at http://www.womansday.com/Recipes/Spring-Vegetable-Quiche).

Similar dish, which uses Knorr soup mix and adds spinach—
http://www.letsmakeknorr.com/Recipes/Print.aspx?RecipeId=6229&Version=2