Lentil Soup with Rutabaga and Collards

This is the last week of our regular CSA. Wow, what a year. I really miss being able to have leisurely chats with you. I miss talking about food, hearing what you made with your shares and just talking about everyone’s life-and seeing your smiles. I hope next year we are back to normal and 2020 is a vague memory of something we all got through together.

Virtual hug.

On to the recipe….Wyatt said we have lots of rutabagas in the field so I used rutabagas here. Some of you might not be too familiar with this yummy vegetable. Check out this post if you are new to them. If you don’t have rutabagas sub any root vegetable, potatoes or turnips or parsnips would all be good.

This is super simple to make and it makes a lot, so you will have leftovers and the leftovers are great. You can throw in any extra grains or vegetables you have to freshen up the leftovers and eat this all week, oh and this just happens to be vegan.

I love adding a little bit of vinegar to lentil dishes, I add a splash about 1/2 way through cooking when I add the greens, if I am using greens and usually a little more right before eating it. If you don’t think you’ll like the vinegar just start with just a little and add more to taste or leave it out. It will be delicious either way.

To make this you’ll need;

1 1/4 cups green lentils
12 oz canned (or cartoned?) or fresh tomatoes — (1 1/2 cups)
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons to a 1/4 cup vinegar to taste – I used white balsamic, I like the slight sweetness but any vinegar is good – red wine vinegar is good.
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh or dried thyme leaves
2 cups peeled and diced rutabagas
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups chopped greens – collards, spinach, chard – green are totally optional
6 cups water
crushed red pepper flakes to taste
freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Peel and dice the rutabagas and dice the rest of the vegetables you are using. I don’t peel carrots. Put everything in the amounts above in a pan except the vinegar and greens.

Simmer that for a total of about an hour. About 1/2 way through cooking add about 2 tablespoons of vinegar and your greens and finish cooking until all the vegetables are cooked through. It’s fine to cook it longer. This photo is when I added the greens it needs to cook at least 1/2 hour longer.