Organic Tomato French Lentil Soup

Here is yet another of my soup recipes.  I made this after mistakenly buying French lentils instead of green lentils.  The taste is pretty much the same but, since the French lentils are smaller they cook much faster.  I used tomatoes in it to try a different texture and flavor from my usual lentil soups.  This is also a soup that can be made vegetarian by using vegetable stock instead of chicken.  I use all organic ingredients in this recipe but conventional are fine too.  The veggies can be bought at Whole Foods or BJs or Costco or your local farm stand.  The tomatoes I buy at Whole Foods.  The stock I buy at Costco or BJs, where they carry a box of 6 for a great price.  The thyme and Bay leaf are from my garden but Whole Foods sells them.  I buy the lentils at Whole Foods from the bulk bin. You can buy just what you need.  This recipe makes a lot of soup so you can feed a crowd or freeze it for later.

Yield: 5- 6 quarts

Ingredients:

1 TBS organic olive oil
2 carrots,organic,  diced
1 onion, organic, diced,
4 celery stalks, organic, diced
2 garlic cloves, organic, minced
2 Bay leaves,organic
3-4 thyme stalks,organic
2 28 oz. cans tomato puree, organic
64 oz. chicken stock (this is two boxes) organic and homemade preferred or water
2 cups French Lentils, organic, rinsed
2 smoked ham hocks
1 tsp Pepper

Cut up all your veggies.

Veggies cut up

 Heat a large soup pot on medium heat.  Add 1 TBS oil to the pot and let it heat for 2 minutes.

Add the celery, carrot and onion to the pot. 

Veggies just into the pot

Saute the veggies for 5-7 minutes until they start to soften and the onions get translucent. 

Veggies after 5 minutes

Add the garlic, bay leaves and thyme and saute for 1 minute.

Cooking for 1 minute brings out the flavor but doesn't burn the garlic

 Add the tomatoes, broth, lentils, hocks and pepper to the pot.

Lentils are rinsed and check to make sure there is nothing in them that doesn't belong.

Everything is in and cooking away

 Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 30 -45 minutes, until the lentils are plumped and soft.

Remove the bay leaves and stems from the thyme.

Remove the hocks. Take off any meat on the hocks and add it back into the pot.

If the lentils soak up too much liquid, you can add more chicken broth or if you like a looser soup, add more broth.

Serve and enjoy.   You can freeze this too!