Fall Vegetable Stew

This is a fantastic recipe for a few reasons. First of all, it's extremely healthy and yet warm and satisfying making it a wonderful cold weather dinner. Also, you can substitute different vegetables if you don't like what's in this recipe and customize a stew to perfectly please yourself and your guests. This recipe serves 4 at 300 calories a serving.

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 cup sliced leak
3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 cup water
3/4 cup dark beer
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot
3 chopped jalapenos (seeds and all. You can remove this if you're not a spicy food fan).
1/2 cup chopped parsnip
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup uncooked pearl barley
1/4 teaspoon dry thyme
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons cream sherry (more or less depending on your taste. I personally think sherry adds a wonderful richness to soup)
1/2 cup dried lentils
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a Dutch oven, heat the oil on medium high heat. When the oil's warm, sautee the leaks for about 2 minutes. Then add the water, beer, and chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Once it's boiling, add the celery, carrots, parsnips, dill, barley, thyme, bay leaves, and sherry and return to a boil. Then cover and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes. Then stir in the lentils and cover and cook for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, throw away the bay leaves.

Now this part is great because it's an extremely healthy way to thicken a soup. Remove 1 1/2 cups of soup and put it in your food processor. Make sure you remove the plug on top to let the steam out but put a towel over it unless you want to redecorate the walls in your kitchen. Once it's pureed, return it back to the soup. Bring it back to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Then, you're ready to eat.