Weekend Cooking: Saturday Soup

Winter weekends are made for soup. This week's offering comes from Wegmans, my favorite grocery store. I've been making this spinach lentil soup for years.

Spinach Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Italian Classics Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 jar (16 oz.) Food You Feel Good About Salsa
• 1 1/4 cup dry lentils, rinsed
• 6 cups water
• 1 pkg (10 oz.) fresh spinach, stemmed

Directions:
1. Heat oil in soup pot on LOW.  Add onion and carrots; cook, covered, on low for 5 minutes.

2. Add salsa, lentils, spinach, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to LOW and simmer, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes until lentils are tender.

My notes:

• I used organic green lentils.
• Instead of 6 cups water, I used 4 cups chicken broth and 2 cups water. (Margaret would have preferred vegetable broth or just water)  
• I also waited until the last 10 - 15 minutes to add the spinach.

Visiting Wegmans website this morning, I noticed the recipe has been updated to include matchstick carrots and Goya red lentils. The new recipe can be found here.  Matchstick carrots would make the soup seem even heartier, and I'm willing to give red lentils a chance, too. I wonder if they have a different taste...

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