Is it soup yet?

To those of you who think it’s difficult to feed vegans, I roll my eyes. It just takes a little more effort and creativity than cooking what the English call "roast and two veg." I have found lots of new yummy foods since going veg. I never ate asparagus before going vegan, and now I do occasionally. I eat more beans than I used to, although they still aren’t my favorite unless I have something really crunchy with them to counteract the mushiness inherent to beans. And before I went veg, I never really ate lentils, little nutritional powerhouses that are yummy to boot. How could I have gone so long without eating the marvel that is the humble lentil?

Tonight, I made a Tomato-Based Lentil Soup from How it All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. If you do not have Sarah Kramer’s cookbooks (she also co-authored Garden of Vegan with Tanya Barnard and is the solo author of La Dolce Vegan), go out and get them NOW (unless it’s the middle of the night, in which case, as soon as your favorite bookstore opens). Ever since I went vegan, I enjoy cooking more, and I think Sarah and Tanya’s recipes and humor are partially responsible. Not only do the books have recipes for food, but stuff tht recipes geared toward kids, beauty products (I love the Lemon Toner in HIAV), party ideas, and most recently, all sorts of awesome crafty projects.

Now, I’m really weird when it comes to soup. I don’t like thick, creamy soups, and normally, the less stuff in it, the better, but this soup, in spite of the chunks of veggies and the pasta, is always good. I’m lazy, so I used canned lentils whenever a recipe calls for cooked. If you look, you can find canned beans and legumes that aren’t too high in sodium and will save lots of time if a recipe calls for the lentils to be already cooked when you use them. Some recipes call for lentils that aren't cooked, in which case, you would use dried.

Tomatoes are a good source of vitamin C, and vitamin C helps increase absorption of plant iron. While you don't have to combine plant proteins at the same meal, it is best to combine plant iron and vitamin C at one meal, whether it's a vitamin-C rich food with the iron source in the same dish or you eat or drink something with vitamin C with your iron source, such as eating fruit with lentils and rice. Here's to happy cooking!