soup and millet

I love the way that things are enjoyed uniquely depending on the weather. In winter, the smallest gestures of warmth carry extra sweetness. Every little thing seems to have a big impact that is felt and held deeply.
Well, this is a simple thing but it was one of those meals that just feel kind of whole and soothing and lovely, like a blanket for your insides. I look forward to making soup in winter, and this mostly resulted from an unplanned combination of things I had at hand and left over. Every so often things just mesh in a beautiful way. Soups are good like that.

Soup:
-garlic (smashed whole cloves)
-onion, diced

-celery
-carrots
-cauliflower
-tomatoes if you have them
-daikon
-boiling water
-2 or 3 decent pieces of kombu

-lentils (I think they might have been du puy lentils? I'm not sure but they were very beautiful things)

-red kidney beans: I had already cooked these a couple of days ago. I soaked them overnight then cooked them for about a hour and a half with a couple of garlic cloves, half an onion, a bay leaf, a carrot and a stick of celery. I saved the cooking water, which was nice and thick, and added it to the stock of this soup.

-hummous: I also had made some hummous earlier in the week, and just put a couple of spoonfuls in.

-spinach (lots)
-lemon juice
-salt to taste

1) Wash the lentils and bring to boil in a saucepan with plenty of water. Let them simmer for about 20 minutes.
2) Heat up a bit of oil in a big pot and cook the garlic and onion for a couple of minutes.
3) Add all other vegies (except spinach) and stir. Add lentils and cooking water. Add more hot water if needed, just to cover everything. Add the kombu, making sure it is covered by the liquid, put the lid on and let simmer for a while. The longer the better I guess.
4) Later on I added the red kidney beans and cooking water, and the hummous. Add salt if you need it.
5) At the very end, add chopped up spinach (lots) and lemon juice (to taste but I think I may have put a whole lemon in).

Millet:
I served this with some millet, which is becoming one of my favourite foods. It completes this soup, so cook it while the soup is simmering away. This is how I like to cook millet:
-1 cup millet
-2 cups boiling water
-1 tbsp black mustard seeds
-2 tsp cumin seeds

1) In a dry saucepan, gently toast the mustard and cumin seeds until they start to become fragrant and pop, then added the dry millet and stir until it has a sort of nutty aroma.

2) Add the water (seems to work better if it's already hot), stir, turn the heat right down and cover with a lid to simmer/absorb for about 20 mins.

Put a big scoop of millet into each bowl and ladle soup over the top.