I really can't follow recipes...

I was going to make the soup linked in the blog post below.  I ended up making a different soup.  I started off with lentils and most of the spices Oh she glows recommended, but then I changed it up a bit.

The ingredients:

1 teaspoon of olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/8th tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes
12 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1.5 cups red lentils, rinsed and drained
1 cup of cashew cream (1 cup raw cashews blended with a 1/2 cup water)
salt to taste (1 teaspoon)
10 oz. of raw baby spinach

What I did:

 Sauteed the garlic and onion in the olive oil for a few minutes.  I actually added a little broth while sauteing.

Added spices, tomatoes, broth, water and lentils and let it cook for 25 minutes and then tasted the soup.  I loved it, but Nick thought it needed to be thickened up a little.  We didn't want to do PB 'cause we ALWAYS do PB.  I decided to try cashew cream.

You're supposed to soak the cashews in water for at least 4 hours for cashew cream but I just threw caution to the wind and threw the raw cashews into the Vitamix with some water and made a thick cream. 

I added the cream to the soup and that didn't work out so well...  It got all clumpy.  I couldn't stir it out so I added some of the soup and the lumpy cream back to the blender.  Can I just say I love my Vitamix?  The soup came out beautifully.

I added a little salt to the soup 'cause the cashews made it taste less salty; then, I added the spinach.  Then, I ate too much.

I'll try to make this recipe again.  Oh yum!