We Crave Sustenance

My husband and I orderded food from the Community Food Co-op of Utah last month and we recieved pork chops, ground beef, chicken, eggplant, cabbage, lentils, bread, pears, apples, carrots, onions, and avocados all for $23 dollars, which my coworker worked out to be about half the price you would pay in the grocery store. Pretty awesome. Anyway... I had never cooked with lentils before and decided I had better try since I have about 3 cups of lentils. I was looking at recipes and found a simple recipe and another more complicated recipe with ingredients not commonly used in our house. I didn't want to buy these ingredients needed that I never use so I decided to play with two recipes to make one... and it actually worked fabulously! My husband and dad really liked this hearty soup and I thought it was pretty tasty and healthy too. So here it is:

1 T olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lg onion, chopped (I used a yellow onion)

1/2 t ground, dried rosemary

1 lb steak (ground beef would work fine too) cut into small cubes

1 qt tomatoes w/juice

2 cups beef broth (or 2 cups water with beef base added)

1/2 lb yams, diced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1 cup lentils (we used brown lentils, any variety should be fine too)

3/4 t ground sage

1 t ground black pepper

2 cups beef broth or water (as needed)

Saute the garlic and onions until onions are tender. Add steak and rosemary. Saute steak in onion mixture until steak is almost done. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, simmer for 20 minutes. The lentils will soak up much of the juices; add beef broth or water if desired for consistency. Heat thoroughly again if needed.  Yield: about 6 to 8 servings. Add salt and pepper to taste.