Cheers to a healthier 2010!

So yesterday mami had her friend Teresa over. We spoke about how one of our new year's resolution for 2010 is to maintain a healthier diet. That means a lot less rice, eating a lot more vegetables and cooking with a lot less salt! And believe me for a Latina cook that can be difficult. But mami and I decided that we are not going to make rice more than once a week. And you know what, beans do not always have to be eaten with rice. As delicious as it is, we can have rice and beans just once a week. And the rest of the week have our meat accompanied with some delicious steamed vegetables or beans.

Today we decided to make abuela's delicious Sopa de Lenteja (lentil soup).
She wrote down the recipe for me before she left for vacation. Mami and I decided to make it exactly the way abuela makes it only eliminating adobo and Goya Seasoning (Culantro y Achiote) completely from the recipe. As much as I love cooking with adobo and Goya seasonings, It's very high in salt and contains a lot of artificial ingredients. So we decided to look for healthier alternatives, such as squash, carrots, and potatoes. And it resulted in the same amazing sabor!

Sopa de Lenteja (Lentil Soup)

Ingredients:
-1 lb or one bag of lentil beans
-10 cups of water
-1 large onion/chopped in wedges
-4-5 garlic cloves minced
-Cilantro, and cilantro Recao
-Half a red pepper
-Half a green pepper
-3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon of dried and crushed oregano
-1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-About a cup of chopped carrots (Optional)
-About a cup of peeled & chopped potatoes (Optional)
-4 pieces of long celery (Optional)
-A cup of chopped squash
-A cap full of vinegar
-1/2 cup of white cooking wine
-Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

-So first we took a bag full of lentil beans and poured it into a large stew pot. We cooked for about 6 people so we added about 10 cups of water.
-We let it boil and waited for the lentil beans to soften
-Then we added the chopped onions
-Then the poured the minced garlic
-We put a couple of pieces of cilantro and cilantro recao
-Then we added a half a red pepper and half a green pepper
-Afterwards we added about 3 tablespoons of olive oil
-Added 1/2 tablespoon of dried and crushed oregano
-Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-Then we threw in the chopped potatoes, chopped squash and chopped carrots
-Add 1/2 cup of white cooking wine, let is simmer and take it the flavor
-Than we took all the seasonings, such as the peppers, cilantro, some of the onions, some of the squash, a little bit of the lentils and poured in the blender. Added about 1 cup of water to the blender. And onced it was all liquified we added it back to the stew pot full of lentil soup, This was to make it more soupy and to liquify the herbs and seasonings.
-Afterwards add about a cap full of vinegar cover and let it sit for a few minutes
-Add salt and pepper to taste.