Below is a recipe I used that seemed to work. I doubled the size of some online recipes, combined stuff, and added + subtracted. It worked... it makes a huge pot, so I froze half of it for laters. It's good over rice too.

<1>

4 tablespoons butter (ouch!)
2 loosely chopped yellow onions
5-6 garlic cloves, smushed in one of those smusher-dicer things
4 teaspoons ground cumin
2-3 teaspoons paprika
3 teaspoons chili powder
3 teaspoons spicy curry powder
salt and black pepper to taste periodically through the whole affair (start with a fair amount of salt... being that there are lentils involved)

MELT BUTTER, SAUTE ONIONS, ADD SPICES, LET SET

<2> ALSO, START BOILING THESE:

64 ounces tomato juice
64 ounces water
2 bay leaves
some lemon or lime juice

<3> ONCE THE WATER-JUICE MIX IS BOILINGISH, START ADDING BIT BY BIT WHEN IT SEEMS REASONABLE:

diced carrots (I used four)
diced celery (I used five)
small cut potatoes (I used three medium-sized yellows, more would work)
2 cans diced n' spiced tomatoes (I used one regular canned & one homemade salsa-style [gotta rid the cupboards of those homemades])
[1] - Onion/Herb Mix previously saute-d
3 cups dried brown lentils (they expanded to 4cups when washed)

<4> SIMMER FOR 35-40 MINS {depending on softness of lentils}, THEN ADD:

As much sliced fresh-from-your-garden kale and chard as you can bring to the table (mmmmmm, more is better... you really can't overdo this part... really, try it. I double-dog dare you to try it. I prefer kale here, others seem happy with chard... it seems to work either way or even both ways, which is amazing when you think about it).

<5> Some minutes later (I simmered a few minutes, then turned everything off, lidded, and let it sit for a bit), you have a soup/rice dish ready.