Life is a dream and a wonder and a swirl and a song.
It is doing heel clicks in the snow on the way to work and it is singing softly in the kitchen on the weekend while turning a heavy pomegranate orb into a bowl of ruby jewels.
It is coming home late at night and then staying up even later with your housemate, laughing first then talking seriously, lowhushedintent, into the early hours of the morning.
It is wearing your new white-with-a-black-floral-pattern skinny jeans into the office and exclaiming, with a whoosh of relief, “I was scared I looked like mutton dressed as lamb!” when a colleague compliments your outfit straightaway.
Life is loving the fact that you’re a bit exhausted from All Of This Living, and secretly being a little pleased that you’re too busy to blog as often as you used to. Life is the heartsoulrush of being truly in the world, laughing loving learning. Life is knowing that not only could you still fit in a myriad more adventures each week, but that you want to.
Life is taking a quiet moment to tilt your head and smile at the gorgeous colours in the Spiced Red Lentil Vegetable Soup before you, smiling again at its wonderful complex healthful nourishing vibrant taste, and then smiling once more, again again again, because you didn’t splash even one red drop on your new white-with-a-black-floral-pattern-hopefully-not-mutton-dressed-as-lamb skinny jeans.
Spiced Red Lentil Vegetable Soup
Serves 4, adapted from the wonderful Angela at Oh She Glows
- 1 tb olive oil
- 1 large red onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1tsp smoked paprika
- ½-1tsp chilli flakes, optional (or, if you’re me, absolutely necessary)
- 14-oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 5 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
- 165g green beans, chopped
- In a large pot over medium heat, sauté onion and garlic in oil for about five minutes, until onion is softened.
- Stir in thyme, cumin, chilli powder, paprika, and chilli flakes, and sauté for two minutes until fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes, stock, and lentils, bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
- Throw in the beans and simmer, uncovered, for 10 more minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then serve.Note: Freezes and reheats beautifully. To life! (I hope at least half of you are singing Fiddler on the Roof right now.)
Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend and Healthy Vegan Friday.
Mmmm, not so sure about a spicy soup on these 30+ days but I will definitely tuck this one away for when the chill sets in here again, it looks delicious! Glad to hear the jeans survived
(P.S. You are far too young to be classed as mutton!)
Ah, if you look closely, you’ll see it’s “Spiced” not “Spicy”. A world of difference (well, only if you leave out the chilli flakes…
) P.S. Thank you, but sometimes I feel ancient compared to all these Beiber-lovin’ whippersnappers…
This recipe sounds delish – perfect for when life is happening and you don’t have tonnes of time to cook. I cannot print the recipe for some reason…is it me or you? Or is it life telling me to get away from the computer & for for a lunchtime walk in the sun.
Hmm, the print feature is working on my end, so I’m not sure what to advise! Is it still not working? Might be the lunchtime walk in the sun is the goer
So lovely. There can’t be enough soups this time of the year. I’m really feeling the smoked paprika.
I’m always feelin’ the smoked paprika. The smoked anything, really. Well, legal smoked things, anyway.
You could NEVER be mutton, Hannah
Just you wait until I pull out the short shorts and the belly button ring.
P.S. I don’t have a belly button ring, by the by. Needed to clarify that.
Hehe I’ve never heard that mutton saying before, but I think it sounds rather frilly and cute. Being an outsider to this slang, I clearly don’t get the implied badness of mutton as much as I should:)
I’m very tired from all of this living too, but mine is 100% physical tiredness. Good thing I don’t have a roommate here because I a) wouldn’t be able to stay awake while talking to them and b) would have to attempt talking to them from a laying down position since there is so much sore and bruises. Oof walking through the woods is so hard sometimes!
PS your soup is so so so pretty. It’s a gem. You’re a gem!
Ha! Definitely not a phrase connoting frilliness and cutesiness. It refers to an older woman who dresses far too young for her age, such as a seventy-year-old wearing a midriff top and leopard-print leggings, for example.
Oh heavens, we could compare bruises for sure. I took a mighty tumble today.
You = gem too!
You as mutton? Dear god, there’s no hope for us that are older than you!
Darling, you’re more stylish than I’ll ever be!
No one your age could really be mutton-dressed-as lamb. Maybe filly-dressed-as-foal! But that would be wearing baby girly dresses and skinny black and white jeans aren’t that.
Love this post … only wish I could also love the soup. Why do lentils always go with tomatoes?
Baby girly dresses and an adult-sized diaper beneath, perhaps? Though I do like your “filly-dressed-as-foal” phrase.
They don’t! I swear they don’t! I’ve just been making the most of being free of the shackles of tomato allergies.
I’ll try to make a lentil soup more up your alley soon. xo
P.S. There’s always the Pea Potage!
Wow, heel clicks in the snow? I am super impressed. I cannot even walk normally in the snow, I have to shuffle like an injured penguin…so instead today I think I will just stay inside and make your amazing looking soup.
I hope it made you feel warm and cozy if you did! And it seems I cursed myself with this post. I will be hobbling myself for a few days!
I don’t know how you do it, but you have turned lentil soup from ‘could be a ho-hum staple food’ into ‘good-golly-this-looks-incredible-and-I-want-it-NOW’. Seriously beautiful.
Also beautiful are your words, and I suspect your jeans, and I would very much like a picture of the jeans because I have never seen white jeans with a black floral pattern!
Thank you for your lovely lovely comment. You are lovely lovely too.
They probably aren’t technically jeans. I shall endeavour to get someone to take a photo, but I can’t promise anything! I’m already embarrassed by how many me-in-new-clothes photos I’ve posted lately
Wonderful, post and soup. Nothing more and nothing less. Will definitely make this. Keep it up. All of it. And only people my age and above can be mutton. Live large.
Thank you dear CK! Perhaps none of us are mutton. Perhaps there is no such thing as mutton! It’s all an elaborate con!
Oooh, yes, I’ve got a similar recipe that, thanks to you, I might dust off and make. I’ll leave it for Love Chunks to enjoy whilst Carly and I trip over the pond for a few days in Edinburgh
You brilliant gallivanter you!
Pics of the skinny jeans or it didn’t happen!
Can you come and take the photos for me? I’m so sick of self-timed silliness!
Mmm, life is amazing nourishment like this.
Amen sisterfriend.
This soup looks delicious, and so perfect for chilly nights! Spice is my friend.
It sounds like life in Toronto is working out just fine for you and that’s great. There’s absolutely no way you could ever look like mutton – that’s something I have to worry about! Love the look of this comforting bowl of soup – lots of goodness there xx
You are far too stunning to ever be mutton! Toronto is a dream. xo
Sounds deliriously awesome.
I am sure I would spill the soup if I were to ever wear white jeans – esp at work – but otherwise I would love to eat it. Just my sort of thing. And do tell, are fire roasted tomatoes very different in the soup – I don’t think I have ever seen them here but I often see them in American recipes
Honestly, I assume they taste different, but I’m not the right person to ask. I grew up in a tomato-free home due to my mum’s allergies, so I haven’t cooked enough with normal canned tomatoes to know!
Lol at the idea of YOU as mutton, in anything, ever. Seriously, aren’t you 26? You are so totally lamb. I think you need to be at least 40 to be classed as mutton.
When it cools off here, trying this soup.
I now feel sheepish about admitting I’m 25.
AAAAHAHAHA SHEEPISH!!!! I didn’t even do that on purpose!! Thank you, concussion brain. Sometimes you give me extra things to be amused by.
Heart you Theresa!
Girl, you need to teach me how to walk around in the snow. You must be seriously talented to have mastered it so quickly that you’re already clicking your heels
Any coordination I’ve gained in snow, I’ve lost in stairs. And now I must again take my concussion brain away from the dizzy-making computer, and back to the couch.
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This looks great; I think I’ll have this for dinner tomorrow!
Let me know what you think if you try it
We had it today for dinner, and I liked it a lot. It was a quick and easy dinner, perfect for a cooooold and grey day.
I hope you are feeling better!
Hurrah!! This brings me joy.
I’m making this one next – what a wonderful soup! I love lentils and have never prepared anything like this. Great submission to Wellness Weekend!
I am making this TONIGHT. You? Toi? Mutton dressed as lamb?? Oh my lord you are making me worry. What would they think of moi???
You, my darling, could never be classed with sheep. You are a magical creature of wonderment and beauty, all your own.
This soup is so beautiful and inviting, not to mention the lovely thoughts in your description. I’m featuring it as one of my faves on Healthy Vegan Fridays. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you so much for your kindness in choosing my soup, Carrie! I’m truly touched
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What a gorgeous soup Hannah! love it and it will find it’s way to my table.
Now this is a recipe I would love to attempt! Wonderful!
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I always love a lentil soup. This one looks delicious. And you are way, way too young to be considered anything like mutton. I hope there are pictures of the jeans in a yet to be discovered posting.