Rain Makes Soup

Fall has fer shure arrived here in Seattle. Brisk, sunny days are followed by buckets of rain.

We visited with some friends who were in town from LA this weekend. They flew in on Friday, which was gorgeous up here. They were greeted with blue skies peppered with white fluffy clouds, temperatures in the high 60's, & a few dots of reds and oranges in the maple trees. We met up with them that evening in a pirate (yes, pirate!) bar. She and I discussed the reality of the rain here in Seattle.

her: I wasn't sure what to bring as far as clothing: rain boots? rain jacket? Gortex?
she glanced down at my grey high heeled Miss Mooz boots.

her: ok, so those are super cute . . . I didn't think something like that would work here in the rain. I've only been here in the summer, when it's gorgeous.

me: well, when it rains here, it mostly drizzles. Sometimes it will downpour or shower for a minute, but it's mostly just drizzle.

flash forward to Saturday.
early morning: drizzle
mid to early morning: showers
11:00am: commence downpour
downpour continues & continues & continues, until . . .
. . . Sunday, around 4:00 pm: downpour tapers off to a light drizzle and a quick sunbreak from 5:00pm to 6:00pm

Sorry, friend. I misled you.
It's really hard to say how the weather is going to go here. It's unpredictable in the fall (ok, and also in the winter, spring and summer for that matter).

The good news is that the rain and drizzle and occasional downpours that keep us stuck inside can really get Seattle-ites to innovate.

It makes me want soup.

Sunday evening, I trolled through the pantry and refrigerator for random ingredients to make a healthy and cozy soup. Our bones need defrosting after 2 days of soccer games in said downpour.

Here's what I found. The soup turned out super yummy and hearty. I even got requests to make it again from all members of the family.

Red Lentil Vegetable Soup

By Suzie

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups chopped carrots

4 medium zucchinis, sliced and then halved

3 cups broccoli

1 15 oz can chopped tomatoes

1 8 oz can tomato paste

2-3 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons “21 season salute” (from Trader Joe’s, or sub no-salt spice mix)

1 t turmeric

1 t oregano

dash red pepper

2 cups dried red lentils

7 cups total liquid (I mixed 3 cups vegetable broth with 4 cups water); *more if needed (see instructions

salt & pepper to taste.

Serve over wild rice

Directions:

1. Heat oil up in large stock pot over med-low heat. Add onions and carrots and sauté until just beginning to soften, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini and sauté another 3-4 minutes. Add tomatoes, broccoli and all seasonings including garlic (salt and pepper can be added now or at the end of cooking) and stir to coat vegetable mixture with seasonings. Cook together about 1 minute.
2. Add the red lentils, tomato paste and liquids and stir. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are soft. *Add more water while cooking, ½ cup at a time, if soup looks like it needs more water.
3. add salt & pepper to taste

This is really great served over Lundberg brand wild rice blend. I make the wild rice with a low sodium vegetable broth. Lundberg makes a few types of rice blends that are all fabulous.

I just threw in vegetables that we had sitting around in the fridge. You could try this with different seasonal vegetables. I would definitely suggest that you keep the onion and carrots as your base veggies however.