Today's Pre and Post Fast Super Vegetable Soup

Nutrition experts say that it's best to eat lots of carbohydrates before fasting, and since the toughest fast of the Jewish year in the Northern Hemisphere starts tonight, I decided to change my "diet" and eat in accordance.

Tonight is the 9th of Av, and yes, it's a 25 hour fast. It starts before dusk and ends the next night in darkness.

I've been varying my vegetable soups recently. I made a pasta-less Minestrone three weeks ago. My classic vegetable soup is based on split peas, but honestly, it doesn't matter what exactly is put in it, it's always delicious and fantastically easy to make.

You don't need an exact recipe.

Today's soup is with light brown lentils. There's a brand pre-cleaned (bugless and stoneless) so I didn't have to spend time checking. The lentils cook up very quickly.

In one covered pot I put the lentils will boiling water and had them cook for awhile. When they began to soften I turned off the flame. Then I cut some onions and carrots and sauteed them in oil in another, larger pot. When they began to soften, I added the lentils, liquid, more boiling water, some sweet potato and a couple of stalks of celery. I also added some tomato paste for extra flavor, and then some salt and pepper.

After about 40 minutes I turned it off.

That's it!