New Recipe- Lentil, Carrot, and Kale Soup

DH is on a low iodine diet for a couple of weeks so he can undergo some screening tests. The diet is kind of a good thing, even though he's having fits for cheese, in that it shakes us out of our food rut for a little while. I've had to find new recipes that are completely devoid of any processed food that might contain iodized salt, plus no dairy and no egg yolks. He's also vegetarian, so no meat. We've gone totally whole foods!

One of his favorite things to eat on the low iodine diet (this is his second round) is homemade salsa- yum. I found no salt organic corn chips for him and so he'll make huge batches of his salsa, then we all pig out on it. Salads, stir fries, and roasted veggie packets are also yummy.

Today we tried a new recipe from Deliciously Organic for Lentil, Carrot, and Kale Soup with Creme Fraiche and Dill, only we altered it a bit. (DH and I made it together.) First of all DH halved it- it serves 8 to 10!! Even halving it made a lot of stew. (It was more stew-y than soup-y.) DH also made a batch of rice to serve with it, and we left out the creme fraiche and dill. (He can't have the creme fraiche since it's a dairy product. We would have liked the dill, we just forgot it.) We also used a vegetarian, no salt bouillon cube to make the broth instead of the chicken stock called for in the recipe, and substituted olive oil for the butter. We also left off the wine, and DH meant to put in a splash of a fancy vinegar instead, but we both forgot. We used an immersion blender instead of a regular blender, and some of the kale was blended up by mistake, but kale blends nicely so that was OK. (I started throwing the kale in the pot then remembered it was supposed to go in AFTER the blender step, drat it all.) Oh, and kosher salt instead of sea salt, since kosher salt doesn't have iodine in it and sea salt does.

The next time we'll make it with A LOT MORE CARROTS!!! My family LOVES carrots so we should've put more in the recipe today. DH also fussed about the lemon, but the rest of us liked it. (He doesn't generally like citrus in cooked foods- it's a thing with him.)

The consensus? 4 out of 5 of us want it added to our regular menu rotation. As for the 5th, he wouldn't even try it; he made a hamburger. (But that's typical- we don't let it bother us.)