Red Lentil Soup with Carrots and Sweet Potatoes

My kind of meal...barely have to be awake to prepare it, comforting, and nutritious.  Green Kitchen Stories blog comes through with another winner.  Easily adapted to use any veggies you may have lingering in the fridge, we first ate it topped with kale braised in broth with spices (turmeric, fresh nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, pepper...adding a splash of cider vinegar and Tabasco at the end), and I just had leftovers topped with grated raw zucchini, toasted walnuts, avocado and a touch of Tabasco.  So basically, just do whatever you want to the base and it's sure to be delicious!  I'm gonna call it Orange Soup from now on, since everything that goes into it is just that.  Check out Green Kitchen Stories blog post for pretty pics and a topping with eggplant added to the kale (eggplant is not Monster-friendly, hence it's absence in our meal).

Red Lentil Soup with Carrots and Sweet Potatoes:
(Green Kitchen Stories blog)

1 Tbs coconut oil, or ghee
1 large onion, chopped
2 sweet potatoes, diced ~3/4" (I buy organic sweets and don't peel them)
4 carrots, chopped
4 sprigs of fresh thyme (just toss them in whole and fish the stems out before pureeing, stripping them of any remaining leaves)
1 cup uncooked red lentils, well rinsed and drained
4 cups water
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large pot, add onions and saute for about 5 minutes on medium-high.
Add sweet potatoes, carrots, thyme and cook for a couple more minutes.
Add rinsed lentils, water, sea salt, and pepper, cover and let simmer for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables and lentils are soft.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup.  Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.  Add braised greens to top (or whatever you like veggie-wise)

Braised Kale:
1 bunch of kale, ribs removed, torn into bite sized pieces, rinsed
pat of butter
~1/2 cup vegetable broth
~1/2 tsp turmeric
~1/4 tsp cinnamon
~1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg (if you only have pre-ground use less)
salt/pepper
~1 Tbs cider vinegar
splash of Tabasco if desired

Heat butter over medium-high heat in a large pot.
Saute kale until wilted.
Add veggie broth and spices through salt and pepper, cover, reduce to simmer and cook for 10-12 minutes.
Taste for doneness, add vinegar and Tabasco and remove from heat.

Almond and Sweet Potato Sauce

A Casa de Luz sauce strikes again. With goodness that is!! Man, those people know how to make simple food taste awesome. I halved the recipe and used only one sweet potato, but instead of using 1/2 cup of almond butter, I used just over 1/4 cup and found it to be plenty.
The sweet potato I used, must have been particularly sweet. The Monster tasted the sauce and thought I'd slipped in some dulce de leche! A friend just gave us a tub of the stuff and honestly that probably wouldn't be beneath me by any means. You can adjust the sweetness by adding more lime juice, etc. if you want. One of these days I'm going to have to buy Casa's durn cookbook instead of trolling the internet for their recipes. :-)

Almond and Sweet Potato Sauce:
(Casa de Luz)

2 medium sweet potatoes (about 3 cups)
1 cup unsalted roasted almond butter (used less...just over 1/4 cup for half of the recipe)

2 tsp. shoyu or tamari

2 Tbs. lime juice

Pinch of sea salt

Filtered water as needed

Update:
When we ate the rest of the sauce the next night I added a touch of rice wine vinegar, a bit of sambal oelek (chili sauce), and some more lime juice. YUM.

Wash sweet potatoes and cut into 2" chunks. Place in a heavy pan with 3/4 cup of water. Bring to a simmer, add pinch of sea salt, and cover (I roasted the sweet potato wrapped in foil at 400 for about an hour, then peeled once cool).
Let potatoes simmer over low heat until tender. Remove from heat, reserve any leftover cooking water, and allow to cool, Leftover baked sweet potatoes may be used instead.
Place cooled sweet potatoes, almond butter, shoyu/tamari, and lime juice in a blender with some of the water and puree until smooth. Add a more water until you achieve a consistency you're pleased with. Serve over greens or grains. I served it with lemon and herb baked tofu over quinoa and braised kale.