Wonderfully Hearty Winter Soup

I know it's not yet winter, but it's been cold and rainy for several days and it was just the perfect weather for soup.

No photos this time, but imagine big bowls of hot tomatoey goodness with joyous veggies.

INGREDIENTS
2 cans of crushed tomatoes
1 can of lentils
1 can of red kidney beans
1 medium onion
2 medium mushrooms
1 medium zucchini
1 small red capsicum
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
1 to 2 teaspoons of Sambal Oleck (or any kind of chili)
2 teaspoons of basil pesto
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
a dash of balsamic vinegar
1 veggie stock cube, made up with only about a cup of boiling water
a handful of fresh basil

Cut up the onion into smallish pieces and fry for 2 or 3 minutes in some olive oil

Cut the garlic up very fine and throw that into the onions

Cut up the mushrooms into smallish pieces and throw that into the saucepan, cook for 5 mins or so

Put in both cans of crushes tomatoes, the lentils* and the kidney beans* and very thing else except for the zucchini and capsicum

Let the soup simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally

About 5 minutes before you serve, chuck in the zucchini and capsicum which you have already cut into smallish pieces, and the fresh basil, which has been roughly chopped.

Heat until the new veggies are warm through and serve!

You can serve with thick toasted bread if you like, but this soup was specifically created to be thick and chunky enough to eat on it's own.

Rocking soup, and I'm really pleased with it. It serves about 4, or 2 meals of 2 (dinner and then lunch the next day. I'm a huge fan of left overs for lunch.) I only wish I'd thought of it about a week ago so I could have submitted it to the Handmade Help recipe book. But then I did submit a number of recipes and fun little household hints, I'll see which ones they use and then post them here.

* i have found, disappointingly enough, that occasionally any kind of canned beans might be somewhat off. After pouring bad beans into the food I'm cooking more times than I can count, I've finally learned to open the beans and drain them into a strainer FIRST to check if they're ok. I strongly urge you to do the same!