Sometimes there are patterns in chaos. For example, a bunch of dill ended up sitting with the carrots at my local grocery store. I took the hint and was not disappointed!

This soup is thick and creamy thanks to the lentils and is perfect served on a rainy day along with some crusty bread.

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp + 2 tsp olive oil (divided)
• 2 lbs carrots, peeled and cut into carrot sticks
• 1 head garlic (see notes)
• 2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
• 12 cups vegetable broth (or chicken broth if you prefer)
• 1 tbsp fresh dill plus more for serving
• 1 cup red lentils
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Roast carrots and garlic
   • Preheat oven to 400 degrees f
   • Cut the top off the head of garlic, exposing the tops of all of the cloves inside
   • Drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil
   • Wrap tightly in foil
   • Stir carrots together with 1 tsp olive oil and salt to taste (just a pinch should be plenty)
   • Spread carrots on a cookie sheet
   • Bake garlic and carrots for 40 minutes, stirring carrots halfway through – carrots should be soft and starting to brown or even blacken on the edges
   • Remove from oven and set aside
2. Sautee onions with 1 tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt until they are translucent
3. Add carrots, 3-4 cloves of roasted garlic, fresh dill (1 tbsp, chopped), broth (12 cups), and red lentils (1 cup)
4. Simmer for at least 30 minutes, until the lentils have softened and started to fall apart
5. Blend the soup – you can either do this using a hand blender or by transferring the soup into a blender or food processor, either way be careful as this soup will splash and it is (1) hot and (2) very orange and messy
6. Taste for seasoning and add as much salt and pepper as you like
7. Sprinkle with extra dill for serving, you could also add a spoon of cream or sour cream to make this really fancy

Notes:

• You are going to have leftover roasted garlic cloves at the end of this project, but there are worse problems. Toss them in homemade hummus, freeze them for next time, or just spread them on some bread (but if you are going to do that make sure everyone in the house does it too).