As I recently posted, we’re on a mission in my household to determine foods that are triggering allergic symptoms in my little boy. That’s meant a lot of simplifying of recipes (the understatement of the year) and finding ways to make delicious dishes out of a tiny handful of raw ingredients.

But even though we’re living under strange conditions right now, that doesn’t mean we’re not eating good food. (Actually, we’ve eaten only foods we enjoy eating for the most part– prepared sometimes far more plainly than usual, but the whole foods themselves are delicious all on their own.)

Today, in hopes of developing a delicious recipe that we could all enjoy, I came up with a new soup that’s so simple as to seem too basic. And yet the final result was utterly delicious, so I’m happy to share it with you.

Here’s what you need:

3 medium onions, chopped finely
1 c. dried red lentils, rinsed well (other lentils would also work)
1 28-oz. Pomi tomatoes (or other no-salt-added canned tomatoes)
1.5 tsp. dried basil

Saute chopped onions in a large soup pot in a teaspoon of olive oil (or as much water as needed) until onions are translucent and very tender (almost to the point of caramelization). Add in lentils, tomatoes and basil. Stir well, add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, stirring often. Once boiling, cover and allow soup to simmer on low until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally. If soup is bland (depends on the onions), add in a teaspoon of a no-salt-seasoning such as Vogue VegeBase, VegiZest or vegetable bouillion (maybe 1/4 of a cube) at a time, stirring well.

Soup is fully cooked when lentils are soft.

Serves 2-3

Healthy eating notes:

This recipe could easily be doubled, tripled, etc.

Red lentils look most attractive and will cook up the fastest in this recipe; however, regular lentils will work fine.

I strongly prefer buying Pomi brand tomatoes, which have no salt or other additives whatsoever and are packaged in an aseptic (Tetrapak) container rather than cans. To my knowledge, there is no brand of canned tomatoes on the market that is guaranteed to be BPA-free, whereas aseptic packaging is safe and BPA-free.

You could easily add 1/4 lb. of chopped spinach to this recipe right as you mix the other ingredients together, and it would be delicious and add extra nutrition.

If you add spinach, I recommend organic spinach for this recipe because non-organic greens contain very high amounts of pesticides. I usually buy Whole Foods’ organic chopped spinach, which works well and is chopped quite finely, which is great for a thick soup like this.

Another delicious addition would be 1 clove of fresh garlic, minced and added in when the onions are almost done. Heat 1 minute before adding remaining ingredients.

Likewise, a tablespoon of cooked brown rice per bowl would be a lovely complement to the flavors of the soup and could be added in when serving.

As always, there is no salt added to this recipe because we get enough sodium from whole foods, but you can add some salt to taste (if you must). ;)

Copyright 2009 Jennifer McCay

www.LeanGreenMama.com