Little Lentil Lover Soup

ButterBean has become increasingly hard to feed. What happened to The Baby Who Eats Everything? He has turned into The Baby Who Spits Out Everything! Most of the food offered to him get chewed for a second and then promptly spit out onto the table, floor, or into his mother's loving hand (disgusting!). He will actually sometimes wait to spit something out and just gag on it until I put my hand out. Nice.

You expect me to eat THAT?

His one true food love right now is Lentil Soup. My mom discovered this when she fed him some Trader Joe's. He will eat and eat and eat lentil soup. The downfall of this (besides the obvious: extreme flatulence) is atrocious garlic breath. I could not believe how awful his breath would be for a full 24 hours after consuming that soup. So, today I set out to make him a homemade lentil soup for three reasons
1) cheap
2) not from a can - I have a mild can phobia and the BPH that lines them
3) less garlic = better breath
I used this recipe that I found on Pinterest, from The History Kitchen blog, which uses ingredients that come straight out of the Bible. I had to tweak it though, because I didn't have all of the ingredients, and I had extra stuff lying around the house. And I recently made some yummy chicken stock that I was itching to use up.
Here's what I did:

• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, including leaves, chopped
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic minced (I cheat and use the jarred stuff)
• 2 cups dry red lentils
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 2 small potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 qts. chicken stock (homemade preferred)
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in medium soup pot and add diced onion. Saute until translucent. Add carrot, celery, and garlic and saute for another couple of minutes until the veggies start to get a wee bit softened.
Add red lentils, barley, potatoes, and chicken stock. Stir. 
Bring to boil, add cumin, cilantro, parsley, and bay leaf then reduce to simmer. 
Cover and simmer for 1.2 - 2 hours stirring often. I left it for a half hour and it was sticking to the bottom. 
Remove bay leaf. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with more fresh cilantro!

Good to the last spoonful!

...And he gobbled it up! Laaahhh! That would be heavenly angels singing. This soup has a nice mild flavor - great for little folks! And, it can easily be spiced up with spices like cajun spice, more cumin or garlic, perhaps a little curry powder. Also, it gets a little thick after you refrigerate it, so you made need to thin it with some water or broth.

All gone!!