Red Lentil Soup with Turnip and Parsley

Since it was so cold and rainy yesterday, I made soup.  This soup recipe comes from Terry Walters' book, "Clean Start."  All the recipes appear to be vegan and gluten free.  I have never cooked or tasted a turnip before.  I liked it.  The soup was delicious and pretty easy.  I didn't have the mirin so I used cooking sherry.  I also substituted canned beans for the cooked beans and canned tomatoes for fresh tomatoes.

Red Lentil Soup with Turnip and Parlsey

1 ½ cups dried red lentils

3 cups water

Thumb-size piece kombu

1 medium yellow onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

3 celery stalks, diced

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

2 T. mirin

1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes

1 turnip, peeled and diced

1 ½ cups cooked great northern beans

4 cups vegetable stock

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley

Rinse and drain lentils.  Place in pot with water and kombu and bring to boil.  Skim and discard foam.  Reduce heat to simmer, partially cover and cook until lentils are soft (about 20 minutes).  Remove from heat and set aside.

In soup pot over medium heat, sauté onion, garlic and celery in oil until soft (4-6 minutes).  Add mirin, tomatoes, turnip and beans,  Stir to combine ingredients.  Remove and discard kombu from lentils and add lentils to soup pot.  Add stock, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from heat.  Stir in 1/3 cup chopped parsley and serve topped with remaining parsley as garnish.

Serves 8