This weekend I celebrated Christmas with some of my closest girlfriends at my house around my (if-I-don’t-say-so-myself) beautiful Christmas tree, and I needed the perfect homey, warm, comforting meal to go along with it. I settled on a soup — there’s not much better than gathering in a warm house with people you love and a warm bowl of soup.

I picked this vegetable lentil soup from Barefoot Contessa because it sounded like the perfect comfort meal. It’s packed with veggies — carrots, celery, onion, leeks — plus delicious green lentils that make you not miss the meat at all, and cooking it low and slow really brings out the rich flavor. Finish it with a hit of olive oil and grated Parmesan, and you’ve got a bowlful of happiness. I served this with a salad and bread. Super simple and easy.

The girls loved it! We drank wine, ate our weight in amazing Humboldt Fog cheese, opened our “secret Santa” gifts and did a lot of laughing. The perfect holiday celebration if you ask me!

TW’s Tips

• When you clean the leeks, chop off the upper 2/3 of tough green and just keep the lower white/light green part. Cut in half and then across making half-moons. Leeks can get sandy and it’s hard to wash out the sand, so throw the half-moons in a medium bowl of water and swish them around to get the sand out. It will settle to the bottom of the bowl and you’ll be spared any gritty bites.
• Don’t obsess about the size of your vegetable “dice.” Not worth it.
• I love the finish with red wine vinegar — in fact, I put a tiny splash in each bowl when I serve it, in addition to the two tablespoons you add at the end.
• When I was eating up the leftovers, I ran out of Parmesan and substituted Pecorino Romano — just as delish.
• This makes a LOT — I served four of us for dinner, ate it for several nights for leftovers and still had so much that I froze a couple of quart bags of it. They’re the perfect two-serving size, so I can thaw them in the morning and have a great bowl of soup that night.

I love this time of year. And I wish you a warm, family- and friend-filled Christmas!

Vegetable Lentil Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound French green lentils
• 4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 large onions)
• 4 cups chopped leeks, white part only (2 leeks)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
• 1/4 cup good olive oil, plus additional for drizzling on top
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 cups medium-diced celery (8 stalks)
• 3 cups medium-diced carrots (4 to 6 carrots)
• 3 quarts chicken stock
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons red wine or red wine vinegar
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions