i have no picture to share but the soup was delicious

Cold weather has me inspired to cook soup...I did lentil soup recently and thought I'd share the recipe bc it was so easy (and cheap!). This might be a double-batch, but we all eat it (even the baby wolfed it down!) so it went quickly around here.

1/3 cup olive oil
4 cups onion, chopped (about 2 big onions)
2 cups carrots, chopped (about 8 medium carrots)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cans (14.5oz) diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 pound lentils (16oz bag/about 2 1/4 cups uncooked) ~ rinsed & drained
7- 8 cups stock (about 2 quarts)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
salt
pepper

Heat oil in large pot. Add onion and carrot and saute 10-15 minutes, until tender and beginning to brown. Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes, lentils, stock, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 1.5-2 hours. Lid off the pot, stir it up, remove four cups (mostly solids), puree in a blender, and add back to the pot. Add thyme and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook another hour or so, simmering uncovered. If too thick (mine wasn't), you could thin it with 1/4 cup broth at a time.

I used the plain, cheap lentils for this. Doing another version with French lentils soon!

I like blue cheese crumbled or Parmesan shaved on top. Serve it with toast points for children to dip/gnaw.

Send some good cold-weather recipes our way!