Vegetable Soup with Wild Rice and Lentils

I didn't intend on cooking vegan last night, but I had so many fresh veggies in the fridge that I felt inspired and wanted to cook them all! I never knew a vegetable stock could be so flavourful. This soup was very comforting and tasty and I didn't miss the meat. I served the soup with sweet potato and rapini salad. Extra veggie goodness!

Ingredients

3 ribs celery sliced (set aside half of a celery sliced)

2 large carrots diced (set aside half of a carrot diced)

1 large onion diced

6 mushrooms sliced (set aside 2 mushrooms sliced)

2 tomatoes diced (set aside 1 tomato diced)

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp thyme

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/3 cup lentils

1/3 cup wild rice

2 cups spinach

Directions

Vegetable Stock

Heat olive oil in a large pot and sauté celery, carrots, onions and mushrooms until caramelized. Add tomatoes, bay leaf, soy sauce and thyme and mix through. Add about 5 cups of water and allow to simmer for at least 20 minutes to make a flavourful stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Strain stock veggies and discard (they've done their job).

Add the reserved carrots, celery, mushrooms and tomatoes into the stock along with the rice and lentils. Simmer until rice and lentils are cooked through (about 50 minutes). Just before serving add the spinach into the pot and ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with a couple of extra spinach leaves.