Scritch n Scratch: New Year...New Soup!

So I did mention that this year I would..eat more healthy, now on Day 5, I am ready to begin (burger, check..pizza, check..chilli, check...schoko muffins, tarts, check check) Ready for some yummy and nutritional soup!

I love soup...ever since I moved to Germany about7 years ago. I eat it more months out of the year than not here. Takes a while for me to get tired of it but it certainly doesn't hurt to expand my soup repertoire once in a while. Enter the sweet potato..why haven't I thought of this sooner? (Perhaps because I was inspired by a friend's soup recipe using sweet potato! I'll have to try this sometime too!) But for now I had to get by with what I had in my fridge:

1 large sweet potato
2 carrots
1/2 onion, finely chopped
Chopped garlic (about 1 clove or 1 spoonful of pre-chopped)
1 parsnip (a key ingredient in most of my soups)
Parsley
Ground ginger
White pepper
Vegie or chicken bouillion
About a cup of Lentils

Peel and slice the sweet potato, carrot(s), and parsnip. Saute chopped onion and garlic until translucent, then add chopped carrots, sweet potato and parsnip. Allow to cook about 10 minutes, or until soft (allow to carmelize a bit, but careful not to burn!) Add herbs and spices (you can experiment with this, I did!) Add appropriate amount of water for amount of bouillon, bring to a boil and add cleaned lentils. Simmer for 10 minutes, or longer. Add some salt and freshly ground pepper, and voila...
Of course, in Germany, we always serve soup with bread (not pictured here)...Guten Appetit!