soup weather - even in south Florida

Yeah, yeah - I know it's warm here.  But it is also raining, and to me, rain means soup weather, no matter what the temps.  It's a comfort thing - like ironing.

After I spent an hour browsing through the NY Times cooking app's 1,421 soup recipes, i decided I wasn't in the mood to follow a recipe.  So I grabbed the soup bones in my freezer, got out my pressure cooker, and cleaned out the rather sad looking vegetable drawer.
The bagged spinach was past its sell-by date; the rice was leftover from last night's stir-fry, those cute little peppers were on their way out; the tiny zucchini was dimpled, and there is a lone carrot there somewhere behind the spinach.  That was it!  I grabbed a new onion from the counter, an open bag of lentils, a can each of chickpeas & tomato paste, some garlic, spices, and a hunk of good parmesean cheese to add to the rescued veggies. (I did not use the Chinese eggplant, scallions, broccoli and the baby bok choi I bought yesterday...)

Into the pressure cooker with six cups of water, 

And after 20 minutes in the pressure cooker...done!

Too late for lunch, but I will taste later and adjust the seasonings.  Now it's time to go and iron some fabric.

* Later: tasted it, added some bacon, more spices and salt and simmered it for an hour. Had it for dinner and it was divine.  Whether you're cooking without a recipe or making a quilt without a recipe, you're pretty much assured of getting something at least, interesting - and often, really good!   Best of all, it's never the same twice.

Cheers! R.