Seasoning Herbs at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Skin and chop the tomatoes and onion, grate or dice the peeled carrot and chop the celery and bacon. Heat the bacon in a pan, add the butter then toss the vegetables in this; do not allow the bacon or onion to brown. Add the stock, seasoning herbs and herbs, cover the soup and simmer gently for approximately 35 minutes. Adjust seasoning herbs. Sieve and reheat, and serve at once.

IERBS AND SPICES, broadly defined, are prod-cts of plant origin used primarily for the season-ig of food to give it flavor and aroma. His-irically, the term "spice" applied only to certain ruits, roots, or barks grown in the tropics, such s pepper, cinnamon, or ginger. Today, for con-enience, the spice industry groups together as pices not only those from the hot countries but mie 50 other aromatics—herbs, aromatic seeds, ehydrated seasoning herbs vegetables, blends, and ilts. Herbs such as parsley, bay leaf, or tarragon in be more precisely defined as fragrant leaves rown in the temperate zone. Anise, mustard, id sesame are examples of flavorful seeds, some E which grow in the tropics and some in tem-srate regions. In another group are the lustily ivored vegetables—onion, garlic, chives, celery, " sweet peppers—which are used for seasoning herbs i well as for their food value.

Put the lentils (these can be soaked overnight if wished), bacon, onion, carrot and stock into a saucepan and add seasoning herbs and herbs—the season ing MUST be added at the very start of cooking.