Three Lentil Soup with Butternut Squash and Ham

It’s been a crazy few days.

Saturday I butchered and processed the pumpkin I bought on Friday – getting ready for Christmas. Pictures on Wed.

Yesterday was consumed with technical difficulties. You don’t want to know…

To take a break from the problems in hopes that they would miraculously fix themselves, I went down to work in my little woods.

I didn’t do any trimming last fall. It’s not that I’m trying to have a perfect woods – I just want to be able to get the mower through most of it without losing an eye or ear or something.

I did about half of the woods, hauled away 5 trailer loads of limbs and trimmings, before I got a thorn in my finger and had to quit.

And it started to rain.

As to today….

First, the food.

Soup season is starting.

The red lentils are used as a thickener in this warming dinner soup.

Three Lentil Soup with Butternut Squash and Ham

Total time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup green lentils ‘du Puy’
• 1/2 cup red or coral lentils
• 1/2 cup black, beluga lentils
• 3 cups cubed butternut squash
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 10oz (300gr) ham, cubed
• 8 cups of chicken or ham stock
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tbs olive oil

Instructions

Sauté onion, garlic, celery in olive oil until tender and starting to color.

Add paprika and sauté 1 minute longer.

Add all lentils, stock and bring to a boil.

Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.

Add squash, ham, and simmer 20 minutes longer, until vegetables are done

Serve.

Today was a big day….

Mon mari had his annual rendevous with his doc in Bordeaux today.

The original plan was to spend part of the day downtown, have a meander through the new outlet shopping center and go to IKEA before the appointment..

Then we had the radiator stolen, so we had to haul the trailer with us again to get another radiator so we couldn’t go downtown (easily) and we had boring shopping to do rather than fun shopping.

I did get to IKEA and stocked up on the important things, like scented candles (it’s winter, candle season).

I also got to Auchan (huge hypermarket) while mon mari was choosing a radiator and stocked up on things I have a hard time finding locally: liter bottles of soy sauce, small cartons of coconut milk, interesting mustards….

Maybe next time I’ll get downtown….

But my pantry is nicely stocked…. I’m happy.

The dogs, on the other hand, are a little nuts after spending the entire day guarding the house….

Alone….

Without me.

If you want nutrition information for the recipe, try this site: Calorie Count

Last Updated on October 14, 2013