Orange Lentil Soup Topped with Pumpkin Seeds
A Delicious & Nutritious Weight-Loss Twosome!
The pandemic lifestyle is a setup for packing on the pounds. Fortunately, the weather is turning cooler. Simply by using winter herbs, seeds, and spices in your cooking, you can turn fall and winter into your favorite weight loss season. The technique for making ORANGE LENTIL SOUP is below, but first let’s discuss the many wonders of seeds.
Seeds are nutritious & delicious!
Seeds represent reproduction, growth, and possibility. They contain protein, they’re a rich source of healthy oil and fiber, plus they’re convenient. Seeds are a valuable source of antioxidants, zinc, magnesium, and manganese.
(Quick Tip: Unlike nuts, that are usually the seeds of trees, culinary seeds come from vegetables (such as pumpkins), flowers (such as sunflowers), or crops grown for a variety of uses (such as flax or hemp.)
Seeds are the perfect fall and winter snack
Keep a packet of pumpkin seeds in your pocket or purse (Eden Foods is my favorite brand). Top soups, salads, smoothies, quinoa, or any dish with seeds, and it will look prettier—they’re the finishing touch on my ORANGE LENTIL SOUP.
While you’re snacking on pumpkin seeds, take a few minutes to create your own FALL and WINTER SPICE MIX; then you’ll be ready to get cooking.
FALL and WINTER SPICE MIX
This mixture adds a wonderful sweet flavor to pumpkin spiced latte, squash, pumpkin, baked apples —and it’s divine in ORANGE LENTIL SOUP. In a medium-size glass jar with a lid, combine equal parts of the powdered herbs and spices that follow:
- black pepper
- cardamom
- cayenne
- coriander
- cumin
- fennel
(Quick Tip: Banyan Botanicals online is where I buy most of my organic oils, herbs, and spices.) Shake or stir to combine, and enjoy!
Cooking Method
Orange Lentil Soup Topped with Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
3–4 tablespoons of sesame or sunflower oil
1 medium onion
2-3 leeks
2 tablespoons of FALL and WINTER SPICE MIX
2 tablespoons of herbes de provence
6 large scrubbed carrots (when farm-fresh, no need to peel or cut off the root)
2 broccoli crowns
3 cups of orange lentil chips
a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds and salt
(Quick Tip: Use organic ingredients whenever possible, and vary quantities according to taste.)
ORANGE LENTIL SOUP—YUM!
Cooking technique:
In a big soup pot, add 3–4 tablespoons of sesame or sunflower oil.
(Quick Tip: According to Ayurveda, fall and winter is kapha season. Cooking with moderate amounts of sesame and sunflower oil is wise because they’re lighter than other oils. They bring balance to heavy, cold kapha. Frying food during fall and winter, along with drinking too many cold drinks and eating too much sour, salty, or sweet food, aggravates kapha, which leads to weight gain.)
Dice the onion and slice the leeks (I only use a moderate amount of the green part of each leek). Add the onion, 2 tablespoons of FALL and WINTER SPICE MIX, 2 tablespoons of herbes de provence to the oil, and caramelize over low heat. Cut the carrots into one-inch pieces and the broccoli into florets, add them to the pot, and sauté for a few minutes over medium heat. (If ypu’d like, add the stem of the broccoli too, but cut off the skin if it’s thick.
Add 8 cups of filtered or spring water to the pot and bring everything to a slow boil.
Reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Then add the 3 cups of orange lentil chips and cook for about 20–25 minutes, or until the lentils are soft (but not mushy). The liquid will cover the ingredients, by about an inch.
Taste the broth, and if you’d like, add more herbs and/or spice mixture.
Blend the soup thick; it will be a beautiful shade of orange-ish green.
Add salt to taste. Top with a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds (raw or roasted) and drizzle with sesame oil.
Serve piping hot, and enjoy.
Hot, chilled, or reheated, I LOVE this soup the first day, the next day, and until I’m scraping the pot for the last drop.
If you have any thoughts or requests that you’d like to share - please feel free to contact me - I'd love to hear from you.
We can eat better together!
Love,
Cheryl
Cheryl Sindell
Global Nutritionist, Consumers’ Reporter, and Weight-loss Mentor. I studied at The University of California, Los Angeles. The American University of Complementary Medicine in Los Angeles, California, and The Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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