Hodgepodge Lentil Stew

When you don't have a lot of time to cook, one obvious strategy is to cook vast quantities when you do. And a soup or stew is easy to expand. We didn't make it to the farmers market this morning (long story) but we still had some things left from last weekend's market that we needed to use up - namely a big bunch of collards, scallions and some nice red and purple potatoes. I was thinking about the white bean soup with collards that I've made in the past but lentils were what we had on hand so that's the direction I went. I kind of made it up as I went along but it came out good so I'll share what I did. It's not exactly the perfect meal for the first day of summer but the weather has been a bit mild here lately...

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion diced
3 small carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried tarragon
1 tsp. smoked paprika
salt & pepper to taste (depends on saltiness of the broth)
8 cups veg. broth or water
1 pound lentils, rinsed
1 large bunch collards, chopped
1 pound potatoes, diced
chopped scallions for garnish

Heat oil in a large soup pot and add the onion, carrot and celery. Cook for several minutes then add the garlic, tarragon, paprika, salt & pepper and cook another minute or so. Add water or broth, lentils and collards. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, partially covered for 30-40 minutes until lentils are just getting tender. Add potatoes and simmer another 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Adjust seasonings if needed and serve garnished with scallions.


And since the food is not exceptionally interesting I'll be shameless and drop in another pic. It's food related only in that it demonstrates the reason we're not cooking as much as we used to.

These last 6 weeks have not been without their (many) challenges but in general everyone is doing well.