I was going to do another recipe this week, but I realized I did something I do quite often. I adapted my own recipe. The original recipe was for Turkey, Split Pea and Broccoli Soup. Tony had a wisdom tooth taken out last week and wanted something that was soft and flavorful to eat. He chose the original soup recipe to make. However, I realized I was out of some of the key ingredients for that recipe. No big deal. I made some adjustments. I didn’t have the split peas, turkey carcass or broccoli. Here are the substitutions I made:

• Replaced the split peas with split red lentils
• Replaced the turkey carcass with ground chicken and chicken broth
• Replaced the broccoli with red bell pepper

I added in some thyme and a good amount of black pepper. Tony was pleased. He hasn’t really eaten anything but very soft food and smoothies. He wanted some real food. You don’t have to, but I chopped everything up real fine so that there was no chewing involved.

Here are the stats:

Here is the recipe:

Chicken and Red Lentil Soup

• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 onions, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 5 red bell peppers, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 3/4 pound red lentils
• 8 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

1. Heat a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the ground chicken and brown. When the chicken is browned and broken into small pieces, remove from the pot.
2. Add in garlic, onions, celery, bell peppers, and carrot to the pot. Saute over medium heat until soft.
3. Add in the stock, red lentils, cooked chicken, black pepper and thyme to the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes or until the red lentils are soft.
4. Serve.