Easy Lentil Soup

I wanted to explore using dried beans and got a bag of lentil. Weeks went by without using it, and suddenly it came to me, "soup!" I already got chicken stock, celery, carrot, onion.

Saute vegetables and garlic in olive oil. Add coriander and fennel powder on a whim. Exotic aroma fills up the kitchen. When they are soften, pour the stock. I throw in prosciutto drying out in the refrigerator (ham and bacon must work very well). It is still a bit bland, so I add some dried tomato and tomato paste that are also sleeping in the freezer. Sprinkle herbs (dried is fine) like thyme, basil and bay leaf. Finally the dried lentil. My online research says it's unnecessary to soak lentils. So I just throw them into the pot and season with salt and pepper.

Kitchen Tip: Tomato Paste
I rarely use up all tomato paste, even the smallest can. It's nothing expensive but makes me feel bad to throw it away. My solution is to wrap the leftover paste in plastic wrap (make it half an inch flat piece) and freeze. It's so easy to cut frozen tomato paste. This way, you don't have to defrost every time and use as much as you need.