Awsome Lentil Minestrone Winter Soup

1 cup of split lentils (I used green and yellow, you could use any lentils you want as long as they are split)

1 cup of ABC tiny pasta or Orzo Pasta

1 cup of carrots chopped into bite sized pieces

1 can of crushed tomatoes 28oz

1 daikon radish or 1 large potatoe chopped into small pieces

2 tsp of thympe

2 tsp sage

1/3 cup of heavy cream (optional)

Nutritional yeast (optional) or Parmesean cheese to taste (for a bit of flaver added when serving)

Mini Meatballs made with Gimme Lean ground beef style mock meat (found at Giant Grocery) if using these which is a tasty addition, roll them into really tiny meatballs and saute in olive oil till brown on all sides then throw them in the soup. Gimme lean is awesome, you don't have to mix egg or bread crumbs to make yummy low fat no cholesterol meat balls and in the soup they don't even taste like fake meat.

Salt and pepper to taste

2 Chicken broth, vegetable broth, or mock chicken broth bouillon cubes or the liquid already made up. If using the already mixed liquid type broth do not add water just use the broth. If using the little bouillon cubes obviously mix that with water.

5 cups of water or chicken broth

Instructions:

Boil the water with bouillon or your chicken broth, then pour in the lentils, turn down heat and simmer for 45min. Then add the carrots and potato or daikon radish, the pasta,  and simmer until soft (if you cut it into really small pieces it shouldn't take that long about 10min) add in your crushed tomatoes. Then season your broth, keep tasting to see if it's enough seasonings, add salt and taste again. Add cream if using (more if you like but no more than a half cup. Simmer to let the flavors meld about 10 more min. While it's simmering you can saute the mini meatballs if using.

The whole thing was super easy and took about one hour and 45 min. I started it at 6pm. The main reason I love cooking soups and stews is that in between the simmering, you can simmer and forget it only checking once in a while so that nothing is burning and stirring about every 5 to 10 min. I sit in the kitchen while my girls color and read my kindle. This soup sounds hard but really it's a breeze, if I can do it with a 2 year old and 4 year old running a muck so can you LOL.

This soup is super nutritious for your family and offers up hardly any fat at all (pretty much close to zero). Yes I know the heavy cream is fattening but your putting only 1/3 cup in and you have about 6 cups of liquid in, you are getting very little of that cream. Also if you want additional flavor you can use a low fat (good fat) butter, try Smart Balance butter with flax oil. If you use this use about 2 tablespoons.
Enjoy

Oh, you could also throw in some chopped kale or spinach too! Or green beans.

Here is a link to more information about GIMME LEAN:
http://www.lightlife.com/

If you don't know what a daikon radish is, you should, it's a really super nutritious food, it's a healing type of food like dandilion is, here is a good link to some more info:
http://www.rwood.com/Articles/Daikon.htm

Shave some daikon into your salads or chop up small and add to soups and stews. It is said to promote weight loss among other good things for your body, some people use it to detoxify their system.