solstice soup cycle

Hello my friends! Time to share some warmth and love with fellow humans of this city.
For those of you still in town, solstice soup cycle will happen in one week! That is, on Sunday, December 21st.
We'll start cooking the soup in the CWB galley (event permitting) around 10 am. There could be some pancake flipping happening too.
Once the soup is done, probably around 12 or 12:30, we'll bike it around going where our wheels take us. Last month we were done around 2 o'clock.
It sounds like this month we'll have a collaboration of soup efforts - Brian will cook some soup and bring it over to bike around with his cart too!

I'm thinking about the soup shown below.
It looks really easy and I have a huge bag of lentils donated by friends Molly & Scott.
May I please borrow one of those nifty hand-held blenders from someone? (Juila, don't you have one?) Jake & Jean, may I use your bike/bike trailer again?
Meg, can you bring in your olive oil? I think I have collected plenty of containers, thanks for thinking of soup cycle when you eat yogurt.
OK, hope to see you there, and/or let me know if you have ingredients to donate.
THANK YOU!
shelly

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/French-Lentil-Soup-236772

• 3 tablespoons extra–virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery stalks plus chopped celery leaves for garnish
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 cups (or more) vegetable broth
• 1 1/4 cups lentils, rinsed, drained
• 1 14 1/2–ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
• Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, and garlic; sauté until vegetables begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Add 4 cups broth, lentils, and tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium–low, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 35 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups soup (mostly solids) to blender and puree until smooth. Return puree to soup in pan; thin soup with more broth by 1/4 cupfuls, if too thick. Season with salt, pepper, and a splash of vinegar, if desired. Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with celery leaves.