Root Soup

It strikes me suddenly that in the throes of 13.1 training I haven't really been talking about what I'm eating. Not only does this knock off the blog's Feng Shui, but it makes me seem a lot more two dimensional than I hope I am.

With all this in mind I present a new soup recipe that I think is just the thing for fall.

 Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• half an onion, chopped
• about a pound of peeled, chopped carrots
• half a cup of peeled, chopped jicima (substitute with potatoes or parsnips if you prefer)
• 1 cup lentils

 Directions:

• warm to high medium heat about 1/4 cup of cooking oil in a  six quart stock pot
• Once the oil sizzles a little when you flick a drop of water into it add onions, carrots, and jicima and let brown for ten or fifteen minutes
• Add lentils, stir to make sure everything get a good coating of oil, and let cook for another five minutes or so
• add enough water to cover the ingredients plus a couple inches
• let cook at a high simmer or soft boil until all the ingredients are soft. (30 minutes to an hour)
• use a slotted spoon to move the solid ingredients to a blender, add enough of the liquid stock (or cream) to allow you blend into a smooth puree.
• pour the contents of the blender back into the stock, season according to taste (I like to add salt, pepper, curry, chile powder, smoked paprika, lots of garlic, and fresh basil if I have it), and serve.

When you're all done it should look a little bit like this:

The ball park nutritional information I got by entering the main ingredients into a recipe calculator is below.

The main thing about soup, though, is that it's soothing and comfortable. Add a little wheat toast or corn bread and you've got a pretty good carb-up meal for cool fall evenings and if you make enough for leftovers you've got the fixings for a really great lunch or two later.

Calories		180.4
Total Fat		11.2 g
	Saturated Fat	0.8 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	3.4 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	6.5 g
Cholesterol		0.0 mg
Sodium		42.3 mg
Potassium		377.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate		16.9 g
	Dietary Fiber	5.8 g
	Sugars	2.5 g
Protein		4.5 g

Vitamin A	123.5 %
Vitamin B-12	0.0 %
Vitamin B-6	9.2 %
Vitamin C	14.1 %
Vitamin D	0.0 %
Vitamin E	13.1 %
Calcium	3.3 %
Copper	7.2 %
Folate	22.3 %
Iron	8.7 %
Magnesium	6.1 %
Manganese	15.9 %
Niacin	4.9 %
Pantothenic Acid	4.4 %
Phosphorus	10.1 %
Riboflavin	4.0 %
Selenium	2.0 %
Thiamin	7.8 %
Zinc	4.6 %