Okay, those other times when I said fall was in the air, nope. That was just the warm-up, the preseason.

This morning, when I couldn’t fathom heading into the kitchen without a blanket as a cocoon, and when I saw 40s as the temperature on the map on the news in some places. Yea. Fall is in the air. And it’s chilly air.

And that means, it’s a soup day.

And because it’s meatless Monday, that means it’s a vegetable soup day.

One of my favorite soups, and really the food equivalent of a fuzzy blanket, is lentil soup.

The Turkish restaurant up the street from us makes the best. It’s velvety smooth, hearty and so comforting.

This comes close to it.

You will need:

• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1/2 a white onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1-2 cups of lentils (depends how lentilly you like your soup. I usually do about  1 and a half cups for the two of us)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• halebi biber (for more on this see my post on grape leaves and Patty’s comment on the history of this red pepper)
• vegetable broth

Drizzle olive oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot and add onions, carrot and celery. Let these cook over medium heat until softened.

Add the lentils and the garlic, cooking to toast the lentils.

You want to keep stirring so they don’t burn. Season with salt, pepper and halebi biber. (if you don’t have it you can use red pepper flakes sparingly)

After cooking for about five minutes, add enough vegetable broth to cover all of the vegetables and lentils. Cover and let simmer for about twenty minutes.

Using a food processor or an immersion blender, puree the soup. Serve up in bowl topped with a dollop of Greek yogurt.