Spinach and lentil soup with kale chips

After ogling for a few months, I finally took the plunge and bought the Vitamix!  To be frank, I did not have a justification to get one ( read I have 4 blenders and a burr grinder already) What do I do with a burr grinder you may ask, well am really risking my life here, a lot of you might even spam my blog for this….I use the burr to grind my spices. Yes! I do that. I do have one for coffee, so before you hit spam on me…just so you know I love my coffee as much as I love my spices.  I am digressing here…this post is about the plunge into the Vita family not a burr grinder.

Remember the week I took off, to be frank, I was hanging out on the tube, watching every single video on this thing. Then I used cosmic energy to imagine it in my kitchen…so the cosmos will conspire to get one to me. Nothing happened! Thankfully it was my big day and finally my better half popped the question…'what do I get for you?' he was not at all enthusiastic about getting the wife a blender for a birthday (specially when she bought not one but two last November on black Friday), here is the story of black Friday  blender … ! This is where the cosmic powers come to play. We were at 'the store' buying stuff, there was a live demo of the Vitamix…we watched, we drank the smoothie, and I could hear my better half tell me "you have to get this thing." Well, I had to oblige ;) And since then, I have been like a crazy woman in the kitchen, so much so that my camera is catching dust. Those of you who know me, that's a shock.

For those skeptics out there, this is not a sponsored post ;)

I think this story calls for a soup….made by yours truly with her shiny new Vitamix. This is really a very healthy and hearty soup with lentil and spinach.

Note : The color of the soup is not the typical spinach soup color because of the lentil and the carrots. If you are picky about the color you can omit the lentil and use 1/4 cup of mashed boiled potatoes instead and replace the carrots with more celery. 

1 cup fresh spinach 

1 cup onion, carrots and celery finely chopped

1/3 cup of boiled moong daal/green gram - split 

1/4 cup of cream or half and half or 1 big tbsp of sour cream (optional)

3- 4 cashews (soaked)

2 garlic cloves

1/2 inch fresh ginger root or 1/4 tsp powdered ginger

salt to taste

pinch of sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

spices 

1 clove

a few black pepper

1 red chili 

finely powdered 

 uses the spices as much as you need 

Sauté the onion, celery, carrots and garlic in olive oil. Cook the green gram. Blanch the spinach, I omitted this step as the Vitamix, cooks the soup.   In a blender (read Vitamix)  add the daal, sautéed mix, cashew, spinach, ginger, sugar, salt and a pinch of spice mix and blend till smooth. Pour soup into sauce pan and bring to sim, If you think you need an extra creaminess add half n half, adjust the salt and spice.

Serve with Kale chips.

Pre heat oven to 350 F.  cut the fall to bite size pieces, toss in olive oil, add salt and pepper. Now bake for 10 -12 min till the kale is crispy not burnt. Let it cool.

Serve soup garnished with kale chips.