lentil chili

I tried this new recipe tonight, which they called Lentil Vegetable Soup:

http://www.liveglutenfreely.com/recipes/Details.aspx?recipeId=5245d9e2-146c-419d-8739-7345503eeee5

I call it Lentil Chili (it's a soupy chili, but chili nonetheless).  I made a few changes, mainly because I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand, but hey.  Why let a few missing ingredients stop you??  =P  So here's my version:

1 large onion, chopped (1.5-2 cups)

1 teaspoon regular chili powder 

1 tsp ancho chili powder (cause that's what I had, that's why)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

@ 1 T minced garlic

1 qt tomatoes/tomato juice/onions/peppers (my mil cans this stuff.  it's good.  You're on your own.)

3 cups water

1 cup (8 ounces) dried lentils, sorted and rinsed

a couple of small green peppers, chopped

1 cup frozen corn

2 cups whatever frozen veggies you have in the freezer

a few shakes of Tabasco Chipotle flavor

1 T or so of vegetable bouillon powder

 Saute onion in your fat of choice (I use canola oil) till about transparent, then add spices and peppers.  When they've had a chance to cook a couple of minutes, add the tomato sauce.  Stir in water, lentils. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 25 minutes.  Stir in corn and veggies. Cover and simmer 25 minutes.   Add Tabasco to taste.

GK's notes:  Ok, you're not really on your own.  I subbed my mil's tomato sauce for the tomato stuff called for in the original because it was what I had.  They called for a can of spicy tomato juice (6 oz) and 2 cups canned tomatoes with juices.  I thought that sounded about like a quart jar of sauce, right?  I dunno.  It worked well enough!  In fact, I thought it would be to liquidy, so I initially reduced the 3 cups of water to 2, but then later added another in anyway, so I'm thinking the original must have been a tad dry... Also, when I tasted it when it was done cooking, I thought it was a bit bland, so instead of just a cup of water, I added a healthy dose of bouillon for flavor.  Perked it right up!  I'm guessing if you want a nice, beefy flavored chili, using beef broth instead of water would be awesome. 
This was a nice, hearty soup.  For some reason, the lentils didn't get cooked, even though they got to sit in the pot simmering nicely for about an hour.  Dunno what's up with that.  I've had a lot of trouble with that lately.  The darned bag they come in says they should cook in 45 minutes.  After a day or two in the fridge and a good microwaving, they'll eventually soften up, but I'm starting to get annoyed at lentils...Oh, these are brown lentils.  Red ones cook much faster, and are becoming my lentil friends, let me tell you.  If you want to use them instead, you can reduce the cooking time by about 20 minutes, probably.