Lentil Soup

I made my own beef stock with the neck bones I bought from the farmers market a few months back. I crock potted them with water, carrots, onion, garlic, celery, salt, peppercorns, bay leaves, and some balsamic vinegar (which added a really good richness to the stock) for a day on low. I then turned the heat up and let the stock reduce down for an hour or two. I made the stock condense down enough that it took up less room in the fridge because I knew I could add more water to it when I was ready to use it. When it was done cooking, I split it in two, half to the fridge, half to the freezer for a future date. 

Now, the soup was really this simple

4 cups of Beef Stock, plus 2 cups of Water

3 Medium Red Potatoes, 1" cubes, or diced to your size preference

2 Large Carrots, peeled, 1/2" cubes, or diced to your size preference 

1 Small Yellow Onion, sliced thinly, or diced if you'd prefer. 

3/4 cup Dry Lentils

Salt/Pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a crockpot, place on low for 5-6 hours and you're ready to eat. You could do this on the stove top too, it would cook in less than an hour if you had it on medium, letting it simmer, but that would heat the kitchen/house up tons. I like set it, and forget it type soups :) Utilize the stove top if its cold though :)

I used a smaller crock pot, this soup made 4-6 servings, but you could totally make it to feed more (or less) by adding (subtracting) more veggies (any root vegetable would work with this, cabbage would too!) and stock (or broth). 

I added some shredded Monterey Jack cheese, but any cheese should be tasty if added to a bowl of hot soup. Parmesan or gouda would be good too; So would a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt. 

I really do love soup and adventuring in my kitchen.