Recipe - Lentil Minestrone

2 tablespoon Olive oil Plus extravirgin
to finish
2 cup Onion; chop fine
2 tablespoon Tomato paste
One fourth cup Parsley; chop
4 Garlic cloves; chop
3 Carrots; peel, dice
1 cup Celery or celery root; dice
Salt and fresh ground pepper
1 cup Green lentils; sort, rinse
2 Bay leaves
8 Parsley sprigs
6 Thyme sprig
9 cup Water or vegetable stock
Mushroom soy sauce to taste
1 bn Greens (mustard; broccoli
rabe, chard or spinach)
2 cup Cooked small pasta
Thin shavings Parmesan

Heat the oil in a wide soup pot with onion. Saute over high heat, stirring
frequently, until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste,
parsley, garlic, vegetables and salt to taste and cook 3 minutes more. Add
the lentils, bay leaves, parsley, thyme and water or stock and bring to a
boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes. Taste
for salt and season with pepper. If it needs more depth, add mushroom soy
sauce to taste, starting with 1 tb. Remove bay leaves, parsley and thyme.
Boil the greens in salted water until tender and bright green and then
drain and chop coarsely. Just before serving, add the greens and the pasta
to the soup and heat through. Serve with extravirgin olive oil drizzled
into each bowl, a generous grind of pepper and the Parmesan. Per serving
(without drizzled olive oil): 395 cal; 8 gr fat; 18% fat. Source: Deborah
Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The Miami Herald. MM Waldine Van
Geffen vghc42a@prodigy.com.
Posted to MCRecipe Digest by Nancy Berry nlberry@prodigy.net on May 15,
1998