The Perpetual Feast

My garden has gone crazy. The tomatoes and corn are making progress but the various greens have grown faster than I can eat them.

I have been picking them daily, and giving away sackfuls.

I have salad greens – mixed lettuces growing at the foot of the corn:

I have escarole:

I have Pak Choy:

But most of all, I have a forest of turnip greens.

I need to thin them and eat them so the turnips can grow without being squished,

I decided to make soup to put in the freezer for lunches.  This soup is rather plain. When I ate the first bowl, I wound up adding some ground horseradish to give the soup a bit of kick. You might want to add some hot pepper sauce to the mix – although I think that having it a little plain lets me doctor it to suit my tastes when I eat it.

Lentil Soup with Greens

1 3/4 cups dried brown lentils
2 quarts water
1 cup diced carrot
1 3/4 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 parsley sprigs
2 bay leaves
3 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 cups torn turnip greens (or chard or any other greens you like)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Plain nonfat yogurt  (to garnish)

Sort and wash the lentils. Combine lentils, water, and next 7 ingredients (water through onion) in a large Dutch oven; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until tender.

Add the cumin. Discard bay leaves and parsley. Add the greens to soup; simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes or until greens are tender. Remove soup from heat. Stir in juice and pepper. soup into each of 6 bowls; top each serving with yogurt. Makes 6 servings at about 1 gram of fat/serving.