Lentil Soup- delicious, cheap, and meatless

What has less than one gram of saturated fat per serving?  16 grams of fiber (that's 63% of your daily value)? 18 grams of protein?  and loads of folate and iron???  LENTILS (:  

I feel like Lentils get an unnecessarily bad rap.  They are truly an incredible food and definitely pack a lot of protein -  18 grams per serving in fact and that is over a third of what the average person needs daily.  impressive.  

AND I have a delicious soup so you can give lentil's a second try (if you were weary of them prior) and be hooked for life.  

a caveat before you get going:  this isn't a soupy soup - it's hardy.  i am not the biggest fans of watery soups so here you go sweet hearts:

This is what you'll need for dinner for four (or in our case for two, and leftovers for lunch):

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 white onion

3 big carrots

2 cups of lentil's

1 chicken bullion cube

5 and a half cups of water

1 cup of cherry tomatoes

2 potatoes 

2 cloves of garlic

a couple sprinkles of dried basil

a couple sprinkles of pepper

Directions:

chop up the veggies and pour olive oil into your pot.  stir it around every once in a while.  Add garlic, basil, pepper.  Once everything is a little sauted you should pour 5 and a half cups of water into the pot & the chicken bullion cube, then the 2 cups of lentil's.  Let it sit and check on it every ten minutes or so for the next 50 minutes.  And then- you're done! enjoy!!  

Watch Food, Inc. if you need more reasons to eat your veggies and cut down on the meat.  or check out this article here!