It's a great day for homemade soup!

One of my favorite things to cook is soup. It stores really well, is easy to make and has those weather-comforting properties that make it so good! Below is one of my newest throw-it-in-the-pot-and-hope-it-comes-out-okay, cupboard clearing creations: vegetable lentil.

Use some variation of the following:

Sweat in a big pot:
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
a small puddle of olive oil
pinch salt
pinch red pepper flake

Add (as much as you like)
3 stalks of celery
3 medium carrots
Cook until tender

I don't have measuring spoons, so I use my hands, makes life interesting!
palmful of cumin
palmful of corriander
Three bay leaves
a few grinds of the pepper mill

1 28oz. can of whole tomatoes (chop em up)
3 cans of water (use the empty tomato can)
1 can of chic peas (rinse em off)

I like to let this come to a boil

Then add
1 cup of lentils
1 bunch of rainbow chard (or whatever chard your market has)

Then cook this sucker till the lentils are soft, say 45 mins.? I usually add another tomato can of water at the half way point in this process.

At the very end, I like to add a few splashes of red wine vinegar. (I usually do this after I've divided the soup into various containers for storage.)