Lentil and Bell Pepper Soup

When I was at UBC I used to eat my lunch at Regent College's "The Well Cafe" and they had these terrific vegan soups (which was awesome during Lent). My favourite was their lentil and bell pepper soup. Usually when I'm making a lentil soup its really a red lentil dahl with lots of cumin and tumeric. But I've had these brown lentils kicking around for a while so I thought I'd try to recreate my old favourite. I looked everywhere online for a recipe but it seems that most people think lentils and bell peppers don't go together-- or at least not in vegan soups. So I was forced to improvise and what I ended up doing was adapting a recipe for "Winter Lentil Soup" (which had sweet potato and leeks and no peppers obviously). It was fantastic!! So here it is-probably not the same recipe as The Well Cafe's but pretty darn good anyway.


LENTIL AND BELL PEPPER SOUP

4 tbsps olive oil
1-2 small yellow onions, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 small tomatoes, diced (or one tin of diced)
8 cups of water
1 cup of brown lentils
2-3 cups of kale, chopped small with stems off
2 small potatoes, diced
salt, pepper, and powdered coriander to taste
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped

Heat olive oil in soup pot. Add onions and garlic, stirring for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes and fry another 3-4 minutes until everything is softened. Add water and bring to a boil. Add lentils, kale, and potato and boil. Add salt, pepper, and coriander. Turn heat to low and cover. Simmer for at least an hour. Add the peppers. Simmer for another 20 minutes or until peppers are soft. Serve with bread and butter.

Serves 6 ( I think--but if you want to make sure you have a lot of leftovers for lunch the following day, better double the recipe)