Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

Today I learned a valuable lesson. Don't cry over spilt soup!

This morning was wonderful. I got up and read my scriptures alongside my 7 year old son. He inspires me. Then after breakfast while making his lunch I decided to whip up our new favorite soup to take to a friends for lunch. Everything was going great. The soup smelt great, we walked to school, came home, the soup was done. Perfect. We were off.

Driving to our play date we went around the round about and sure enough the soup that was in the crockpot on the floor in front of the passenger seat tipped over. Soup spilt on the floor, on the door, and I am driving and unable to really do much expect put it back in upright position and put the lid back on.

My little girl in the backseat says, "mom, something smells yummy." Thank goodness for her perspective. I really wanted to cry. All that work, all those ingredients... ah, it's just soup I guess. I didn't cry.

We get to our friends and I haul in the babe and the other kids, the box of satsuma oranges I also brought and head back out to clean up. My other friend came out and helped me. We got the soup out and put it in the house, luckily there was still enough for all of us to have some. Then we basically took anything of value out of the front passenger seat area and hosed the soup out.

Here is the soup recipe. I will be making more soon! My whole family loves this soup. I got this recipe out of the recipe book from San Juan Islands. The author believes recipes are to be shared, not secrets. I agree.
This is the exact recipe

Curried Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

2 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 lg. onion, diced
6-7 cloves garlic ( I don't use this much, I have a nursing baby. Usually I use 2 cloves or just a Tbs. garlic powder)
1/4 ginger root peeled and minced (again I use 1 Tbs ginger powder)
1 1/2 Tbs. Curry powder
1 hot chili pepper minced ( I don't use this)
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup sweet red pepper, diced
5 cups sweet potatoes, diced
14 oz coconut milk
2 cups dried lentils, washed
8 cups vegetable stock
juice of one lime
salt to taste

1. Heat oil and saute onion, garlic, ginger for 15 minutes in a large soup pot over med/low heat.
2. Add next five ingredient, saute another 5-10 minutes.
3. Add coconut milk, lentils, and stock.
4. Simmer, covered, until lentils are done and sweet potatoes are tender, approx. 45 minutes.
5. Add lime juice. Serves 6-8.

The first time I made this soup I did it the way I just listed above. It takes a lot of time so now I do it like this and I think it's just as good.

1. Oven roast the sweet potatoes, onions, carrots and peppers in coconut oil at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.
2. While the veggies are roasted saute  the ginger powder, garlic powder, and curry powder in the olive oil in large soup pot.
3. Add the stock to the pot with a cup of water and the lentils. Boil the lentils until tender.
4. Once the lentils are tender add the coconut milk.
5. When veggies in the oven are roasted blend them in blender with 8 more ounces of stock until pureed. Add puree to soup. Enjoy!