We got a few emails from our readers with response to the series we did on eating organically, locally and by shopping at Whole Foods (exclusively) asking if or maybe it was challenging us to do the same by eating vegetarian.  Since we are all about watching our budgets while eating well and by proving our belief that you can do so by shopping at Wholefoods, we are going to run with it again this week.

To recap our rules for this series:   I planned out our menu for the entire week, 7 dinners, 5 lunches (leftovers from the night before), 1 dessert which would be fresh fruit (Clementines were too good to pass up) and 1 Tuesday with Dorie challenge.  The total price of groceries for this week was $78.30 and it included a gallon of organic milk and breakfast items, which is our house is cereal, yogurt and eggs (I got the vegetarian fed eggs).

*disclaimer does not include Valentines as we are not sure what we are doing yet

The first dinner in our Vegetarian Series was a butternut squash soup that I found in the February issue of Gourmet.  I love butternut squash.  It is flavorful.  It is full of fiber, potassium and vitamin B.  I love to just roast it with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh herbs or chop it up and add it to a stew or make a soup out of it.  Unfortunately, when I did the shopping today, they were out of butternut squash so I substituted it with acorn, another favorite of ours.  The health benefits are the same, the only really difference it is not as sweet and the color is not as vibrant.

Now I have to admit, I did not read the recipe all the way though before starting.  I ended up changing it up a bit.  For instance, I pureed it before adding the lentils and I used half water and half veggie stock.  Regardless, the recipe is really fantastic – imagine caramelized veggies simmering in fresh garlic, ginger and curry.  Our house smelled sweet and spicy, as if we were in a small village in Goa. To garnish the soup I drizzled it with some homemade cilantro oil, which cooled down the spiciness of the curry.  Served with some warm whole wheat pitas and a cool crisp bed of butternut lettuce that was drizzled with olive oil and fresh squeezed Meyer Lemon.  Fantastic meal!

$ 12.32 for 6 servings.   2 Dinners (Sunday & Monday) and lunch for the next day.

Recipe – is on its way