Thick Fridge Soup

I like soup.  Thick, hearty soup is best.  Soup that uses up bits languishing in the fridge is great, too! Today's soup was a bit of a pot-luck effort. 

It worked quite well and was enjoyed as a very late lunch, shortly before we collected Vaughan from school!

I didn't use a recipe as such.  I chopped a large onion and fried it, then added:-

125g dried red lentils
125g dried split green peas
125g dried barley
approx. 2 cups of mixed frozen vegetables
approx. 1 cup of frozen green beans
approx. 600g of chopped pumpkin
approx. 1/2 bunch of silverbeet, roughly chopped
10 cups water
10 generous teaspoons of chicken stock powder

The mixture was brought to the boil in my large (inner) thermal cooker pot, then simmered for around 15-20 minutes.  At that stage the pot was transferred to the thermal cooker, where the pot lid was put on and all locked down for later enjoyment. 

By the time we ate it, the soup had been in the thermal cooker for around 5 hours.  Everything was nicely done and I stirred a bit before serving, to mush the pumpkin through - because that's how I like it!