Quinoa Coconut Soup

I'm always up for a bowl of soup and base the day's special on what's in the cupboard and in the fridge. Today's ingredients resulted in the recipe below.

Recipe
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
4 carrots, cubed
1 tablespoon veggie powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 cup of red lentils
1 yam, cubed
2 red potatoes, grated roughly
1 cup of chopped savoy cabbage
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

1 envelope (65 gm) instant quinoa soup
5 - 500 ml bottles of spring water (10 cups)
1/2 can of the (160 ml/6 oz) size can of coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen veggie chicken chunks (opt)

Saute onion, garlic, carrots and spices in 1 tbsp. oil for about 2 or 3 minutes...then add about 2 cups of water. Add the lentils and let simmer for a bit while you continue to chop up remaining veggies. I like to grate the potatoes as I like the extra thickening it gives in certain types of soups. Plus it makes it easier to freeze if you so desire as potatoes are often the reason why freezing is not recommended (supposedly not if you use russet but I haven't tried it myself).

Add the remaining water -- any water will do -- I just put exactly what I did as lately I prefer spring water for my cooking and drinking. Edmonton water tastes fine straight out of the tap but it is extremely hard and fluoridated so hence my preference for the spring water. Also at this point throw in the package of Gogo Quinoa and Vegetable Soup Mix and the frozen veggie chicken chunks if you decide to use them (definitely not a must -- I was just using up small amount of leftover so I will not have to see it in the freezer anymore) :)

Simmer for about an hour or so. Add coconut milk during the last 5 minutes of cooking. I used only 1/2 can because I freaked out about how high calorie it was -- it was 360 calories for the little tiny can -- 160 ml/(6 oz). I'm quite sure it would taste fine with the whole can as the amount I used certainly did not overpower any of my other ingredients. Next time I'll skip the veggie chicken chunks (because there won't be any in the freezer anyhow) and I'll try using the entire can of coconut milk because the flavor seems very nice with the red lentils.
Makes about 10 cups of soup.

http://www.gogoquinoa.com/home.htm