Wholesome & Feel-good Spring Lentil Veggie Soup Recipe!

Bowl of wholesome Spring lentil veggie Soup goodness!Ahhhh, it’s Spring – and such a beautiful, lush and refreshing Spring season it has been so far here in Australia right now too!

In Ayurveda, seasonal change is considered a magical and potent time of the year for giving extra love and nurturing to our beautiful bodies and from a digestion point of view – to focusing on foods that are ‘light’, ‘warm’ and ‘easy-to digest’, so that our body can devote energy to it’s natural seasonal change processes of cleansing, adjusting and aligning for the next season ahead!

So, when it comes to giving the body a little extra space, energy and warmth-filled-loving goodness to support our digestion and our immune system during seasonal change… the solution is Souper Simple! (I just had to go there! hehe) …If that pun didn’t give it away, the solution is, drumroll, yes you guessed it… Soups! Soups my friend are our Seasonal transition best-friend, and are a beautiful way to incorporate the potent, nourishing and ‘deliciousafying’ qualities of healing Ayurvedic kitchen spices and herbs into our cooking too – for literal added goodness!

In seasonal Soup fashion ~ I have personally been living off Soups in my Kitchen lately, since the seasonal change, making some of my staple go-to healing soup favourites from my E-book, as well as creating some fresh new yummy Soupy-goodness filled recipes and today I am so excited to be sharing one of my favourites at the moment, with you!

The Soupy downlo’ on this fresh new recipe…

If you have my E-book, you’ll see that this recipe is very similar to the ‘Sunshine Veggie Soup’ recipe in there that you are most likely familiar with (I think it is THE most commented upon recipe from the book! It’s popular, and for good reason!) It’s definitely one of my all time favourite go-to’s as it is not only packed with my favourite Vegies, but it literally feels like sunshine in my body when I eat it too, (hence the name!)

This new recipe I have for you today, has all the qualities I love about the ‘Sunshine Veggie Soup Recipe’, with a little extra! The two new main ingredients being; whole red lentils for added protein, fibre and oomph! And, fluffy steamed quinoa for extra protein and heartiness! Yuummm!!! (It’s so good, I’m excited for you to try it!)

The combination of healing Ayurvedic spices, vegies, lentils and quinoa (let alone garnishing with some yummy crunchy toasted seeds – also from my E-book) is…. Let me just say, simply Super (or Souper!)-duper wholesome, nourishing and feel good!  It feels DIVINE in my tummy, and I hope in yours soon too!

This Soup is a ready to go meal all in one, and I feel confident that you are going to LOVE it and fall in love with making it a staple go-to wholesome feel-good Soup recipe in your Kitchen also! Yay!!!!

A few more reasons to love Soup during Seasonal transition (and in life in general!): 

  • Soups are an amazing nourishing staple, they are simple, quick, easy to make and nutrient packed!
  • They are warming, light, high in fiber from Veggies and or lentils/legumes and generally speaking – are easy to digest for the body due to their warm, soft and smooth qualities!!!
  • They are easily customisable and adaptable and are a great meal to make when you’ve only got a few veggies left in the fridge!
  • You can make Soups in advance so that you have a nourishing wholesome meal for lunch or dinner ready to go on days when you’re busy and need something quick!

…Basically, what’s not to LOVE about Soups!!! …I love them SO much!

So, without further adieu, let’s get straight into the Recipe!

little line with graphic of a bowl of soup

Wholesome & Feel-good Spring Lentil Veggie Soup Recipe! 

Wholesome Vegie Lentil Soup Recipe with Ayurvedic Spices and ingredientsIngredients:

  • 3 tbsp of Ghee, Coconut Oil or Avocado Oil
  • 2 tsp of Cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp of Coriander seeds
  • A pinch of fennel seeds
  • 2 tbsp of fresh ginger finely chopped or grated
  • 1 cup of finely chopped red onion (or shallots!)
  • ½ tsp of turmeric powder
  • 1 cup of celery finely chopped
  • 3 cups of small – medium cubed pumpkin
  • 2 cups of zucchini cut into quarters
  • 2 cups of broccoli chopped into little florets (little trees!)
  • Approx 10-12 cracks of black pepper from your pepper grinder!
  • ½ tsp of sea salt
  • 1 cup of fresh coriander finely chopped
  • 1 cup of whole red lentils (ideally soaked overnight, or at least for 1/2 a day prior to cooking!)**
  • 1.5 cups of *cooked* whole Quinoa (white or tri-colour will work perfectly!)
  • Your love! (…Obviously, the *most* important ingredient, always! :)

**Note: A common question about the ‘Whole Red Lentils’, in this recipe is ‘Why do they *look* like ‘brown lentils’? The answer is that ‘Whole red lentils’ infact don’t actually look ‘red’ as their name suggests, they look ‘brown’ (like you can see in the photo’s here)!  Also, if you don’t happen to have ‘Whole Red Lentils’ in the pantry as you’re reading this and are wondering what you can swap them for, you can easily use ‘French Green Puy Lentils’ instead and you’ll find they have a similar cooking time so you can follow the exact same steps!

Simple Creation process in 3 Stages:

This dish is simple, however within it’s simplicity, there are 3 key stages of preparation for it then all come together with the click of your fingers that I’m going to walk you through step by step! …There’s preparing the Lentils, preparing the Quinoa and then preparing the Soup herself! (If you already have lentils and quinoa prepared by chance, you can skip right to the bottom to making the core of the Soup straight away!)

Stage 1: Preparing your lentils… (as they require the most preparation!)

The first step and step that requires the most pre-thought and preparation is soaking and cooking the lentils. There are a couple of different ways to do this.

Lentil Cooking Option 1: If you own a pressure cooker (I recently started using an ‘Instant Pot’ pressure cooker for the sole purpose of cooking beans and lentils quickly!) then you can simply soak your lentils overnight or for at least a couple of hours, and then pop them in your pressure cooker with a bay leaf, pinch of salt and pinch of asafoetida and then cook for 10mins! After 10mins, voila, your lentils will be perfecto and ready for the soup!

Lentil Cooking Option 2: If you don’t have a pressure cooker (I didn’t for years also!) then you can cook the lentils on the stove in water for approx 50mins until they are soft, again with a bay leaf, a pinch of salt and a pinch of asafoetida. So, these are the lentil preparation options.

Bowl of Steamed Organic QuinoaStage 2: Preparing your steamed Quinoa

This step is super simple. If you’re familiar with cooking quinoa, then all you’re going to do is cook quinoa the way you know how. If you’re new to cooking beautiful fluffy quinoa then I have some instructions for you below:

How to cook beautiful fluffy Quinoa in 2 easy steps:

Step 1: Take a pot, place 1 cup of quinoa inside the pot, and fill the pot with water to rinse the quinoa and wash it, to help remove the ‘saponins’ that are naturally on the outside of quinoa and make it yummier and easy on the digestive system. Rinse your quinoa in the water a couple of times, use a fine mesh strainer when pouring the water out to prevent losing any little quinoa seeds and then place on the stove.

Step 2: Add 2 cups of filtered boiling water from the kettle (this will just save you a bunch of cooking time!) and a pinch of sea salt, place the lid on the pot and then bring to a boil! Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to low and let it cook with the lid still on for 15mins. After 15mins turn the heat of completely and let the quinoa sit with the lid still on (to utilise the steam) for another 5 mins before serving. The result will be beautiful gorgeous fluffy Quinoa! Yum!

Okay, now let’s get onto making the heart and soul of this soup – the warming, healing ~ liquidy Vegie goodness!!!

Wholesome Lentil Vegie Soup Recipe Close UpStage 3: Now, to make the Soup! (this is the quickest part, your Soup will be ready within 20-25mins!)

1. Warm your Ghee or oil in your pot, then add your Cumin seeds, Coriander seeds and fennel seeds. Allow to saute for a few moments until you see the spices release little tiny ‘bubbles’ around them (a sign of them releasing their healing volatile-oil goodness into the pot) and then add your finally chopped garlic, ginger and onion.  Stir and saute for a few minutes to soften the onion and allow the garlic and ginger to become yummy and then add your turmeric powder and continue to saute and stir until the onion is soft and caramelised.

2. Add your celery and stir for a few minutes, allowing the celery to soften and meld with the other ingredients already in the pot. Next, add your pumpkin, and stir for a few minutes to give it a head start before then adding the rest of the vegies. Next add the rest of the vegies; the zucchini and broccoli and stir.  Add your hot water from the kettle, a generous amount of ‘black pepper’ from your pepper grinder (or approx ‘12’ cracks!), sea salt and some fresh coriander. Allow to cook for approx 20mins or until the pumpkin is soft and tender. When the pumpkin is soft, you know your soup is done!

3. Scoop your drained and cooked lentils into the Soup and stir to allow the lentils to merge with the vegies.  And then optional is to add a few spoons of quinoa to your soup (this is really delicious) OR leave the quinoa as a side to enjoy adding to the soup as you eat it, like dipping bread into your soup, but it’s fluffy quinoa instead!

And your Soup is done!!!

Serve with some crunchy toasted seeds, fresh coriander, a little pinch of salt and a few more cracks of black pepper to suit your taste.

Enjoy and relax while eating… put some soft music on in the background, light a candle or two and take a moment to ‘center’ your mind and body before your first bite. When we do this before a meal we are relaxing the nervous system, which in turn relaxes the digestive system. This prepares the body to digest the divine food we are about to bring into our precious body optimally for great digestion and our ultimate Nourishment!

…Yum! Enjoy in bliss and if you make this recipe and love it please let me know on instagram, facebook or even good-old email (lorien@wholesomelovinggoodness.com) ! :) I love hearing from you and seeing your creations! 

With love and joy to your home and family from mine!

Blessed and blissed nourishing!

x Lorien

P.S. If you’re feeling inspired to take your personal inner and outer nourishment and self-care to a whole-new delicious level, you might love my self-paced signature 6-Week Ayurvedic Food & Lifestyle transformation program, ‘Simple Ayurveda in Your Kitchen’!

It’s a juicy course to support you in not only becoming a creative intuitive genius in the Kitchen, with making staple wholesome Ayurvedic dishes for yourself and your family, but to also empower you to implement Ayurveda’s foundational healing wisdom and magic into your modern daily life! The wholesome doors to the program are opening for enrolment again soon, so if you’re ready to take your nourishment to a new level I highly recommend you join the ‘Waiting list’ here so I can let you know when enrollment opens for the last time this year!

Yes please, I’d love to find out more and join the Waiting list!

x

Wholesome vegan lentil veggie soup recipe

Merry Christmas!

Merry, Merry Christmas to you!  

Thankyou for your love, warmth, inspiration & encouragement!  It’s such a blessing to have this vibrant platform to share, connect & contribute to community with.

It makes my heart sing! 

May this holiday season and each season – be filled with love, connection with family, friends and even strangers ~ you never know what ripple effects your small act of kindness can have in another’s life.  

…Be that person to make another’s day even brighter! 

May you be nourished, filled with love and quality time with those dearest and nearest to you – may you smile and… if inclined… may you enjoy nourishing yourself and your loved ones with yummy wholesome foods!! 

We had a Christmas morning brunch at our house, buckwheat pancakes that were gluten-free & egg-free (recipe coming in my new book coming soon!), with a spread of luscious summer fruits that are in season!  The meal was delish – as was the fresh water swim in our local water hole after.

The most nourishing part of Christmas however was the precious time spent relaxing and blissing out in the summer sunshine with family! 

So much love and endless gratitude from my heart.

May deep nourishment, joy and peace ripple out to one and all!

Bliss-ings & Bless-ings!

Namaste,

Lorien  x

Let’s talk about Juice! (…and Fasting!)

Juicing has been popular for years in the natural health and alternative medicine community. Juice fasting has been promoted as a way of cleansing toxins from the body, losing weight and improving health and wellbeing. Some people live purely on juice and nothing else.

Juices are becoming more and more popular with fresh juices being available in every major city and town, not just from alternative hippy loving health food cafe’s. You can get a juice almost anywhere. The world loves juice!

There is a great reason why juice is so popular and can make us feel so good.

When we drink juice it has a particularly nourishing effect on the plasma (rasa) tissue of the body. This means that it has a cleansing effect on our blood, lymphatic system and skin, giving us greater energy and vitality almost instantly as a result.

This is a wonderful thing. We all want to feel better, look better and live better. If we over do our juicing however, the body can start to become depleted and the natural juice ‘high’ starts become an over juiced energy ‘low’. The motivation behind ‘juice fasting’ is often to ‘detox’ and improve the functioning of the digestive system.

In Ayurvedic medicine, poor digestion and a build of toxins in the body is often due to the air element in the body (Vata) being out of balance, leading to undigested food mass, gas, bloating and feeling out of it.

To detox and improve digestion with this in mind, we must balance the air (Vata) element by having the opposite to cold, fresh, raw juices (which will only increase Vata) and instead choose to have warm, light, brothy vegetable soups for example. It’s a different way of viewing things and comes from a perspective of balancing elements and qualities to improve digestion, looking at the reason why things have gone pear shaped and treating the cause.

Balance is the key.

For some people, at certain times of their life, under certain circumstances and conditions juice fasting might prove to be the best medicine. For other’s juice fasting might be too depleting and a in the case of wanting to ‘detox’ to improve digestion, a few days on warm Vegie soups might be the best medicine!

To incorporate a Vegie juice or a fruit juice into your daily eating in a balanced way can be a wonderful way to build your blood (great for women particualry or those with Anaemia), get a boost of minerals and cleanse your body in a balanced and grounded way.

Ayurvedic wisdom reminds us that we are all unique. We must live, eat and drink in ways that are harmonious for ourselves as individuals. To find inner and outer balance we must respond to our own body and see what works for ourselves, rather than following what works for someone else.

So enjoy your juices with awareness and being in tune with your body and what it needs. Remembering that one man’s medicine is another man’s poison. We must learn to listen to our own bodies and trust that guidance with our food and life choices.

Ayurvedic Principles for Balanced Juicing:

  • Mix vegie with vegie & fruit with fruit.
  • Add ginger to balance the heavy, sweet qualities of juice.
  • Have a moderate amount, a small or medium sized cup will be plenty as it is so concentrated.
  • Allow 20 mins until eating or drinking something else, to give the digestive enzymes time to do their thing.
  • Go for Vegie juice as much as possible, the minerals in vegie juice are great for the blood and full of goodies your body will love. (My favourite!)
  • When having fruit juices, keep combinations simple. eg: Apple & Pear or Apple & Pineapple. This makes it easier for the body to digest.
  • Drink your juice mid-morning, when the sun is getting high in the sky. In Ayurveda the digestive fire is strongest in the middle of the day, so having something like a juice which is quite dense will be most effectively digested in the morning or close to lunch time.
  • Finally, love your juice and treat it like medicine. For women, having a Vegie juice with Beetroot around the time of menstruation can be a wonderful remedy for building the blood.
Enjoy & listen to your body! It’s all about balance and being in tune…
x Lorien