The Way of the Lentil
How serendipitous that Adam K posted the James Beard recipe for lentil soup! For just this week I made a lentil soup to end all lentil soups. In a good way, I mean. I've been eating it like manna for the past four days.
What way do you make your most salivation-worthy lentil soup? Tell us the Way of Your Lentil.
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9 Comments:
My favorite recipe for making lentil soup is easy. Take one cup of lentil & soak it in water for 2 to 3 hours. In a slow cooker take 4 cups water, one 8 oz can of tomato sauce, one 8 oz. packet of frozen chopped spinach ,add one small chopped onion, two cloves garlic & one small ginger root . Cook for 3-4 hours till it is completely cooked. Add salt & pepper to taste.
Mira
mira at 9:14PM on 10/06/07
My favorite recipe for making lentil soup is easy.
That's one thing I love about lentil soups. What you get opposed to the work you put into it is really awesome in some way.
Always makes me think about that Jacob and Esau story. A bowl of lentil soup? In trade for all his inherited wealth? How perfect that it wasn't rather a roasted goat basted in persimmon juice or some such thing that actually demands one work at it. :)
Karen Resta at 10:05AM on 10/07/07
Lately I've been making amazing lentil soup in my solar oven. The slow cooking keeps almost every lentil intact. I just combine rinsed lentils, water, a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, a sprig of rosemary and some chopped onion and carrot.
On the stovetop, I saute diced carrot and onion together, then add the lentils, water and herbs. For Mexican flavors, I like to add pureed chipotle chili and roasted garlic to the simmering lentils.
Marc at 1:08PM on 10/07/07
Marc, that solar oven is fantastic. I think I know what my son's next science project for school is going to be! :)
I've made a Mexican flavor lentil soup similar to yours but with fresh salsa as part of the base, finished with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream. It seems to be a favorite with children who might not otherwise want to even try lentil soup (my kid's friends sometimes for example). The chipotle is a great idea.
The Italian-based lentil soups I've had or made always seem to have spinach in them. Incredibly healthy combination.
Karen Resta at 12:49PM on 10/08/07
My version of Lentil soup
2 big carrots
2 stalks of celery
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
a glug of olive oil
1 1/2 T of tomato paste
4 cups of (vegetable or chicken) stock
1 1/2 cups of lentils (I buy them in bulk and use half red lentils and
half brown "regular" lentils) red lentils turn yellow when you cook
them... I don't know why!
1 tablespoon of (dried) parsley
2 tablespoons of butter (about that)
salt and pepper to taste
start by chopping carrots, onions, celery, and garlic. take a big soup
pot and cover the bottom with olive oil. add carrots, celery, onions
and garlic to oil. cook over medium heat. add tomato paste. stir these often so they don't burn! cook them for about 15 minutes until they are soft. Then add salt and pepper to taste. add all four cups of the stock. let this come to a boil. add the lentils and let this all cook together until
the lentils are soft (maybe 45 minutes). Add your butter and parsley
right before you eat it. the butter makes it super yummy! You can use fresh parsely.
I tend to add more parsely before serving too, i like the flavor!
I make variations of this. Sometimes i do all brown lentils for a
hearty soup.. sometimes I make it all red/lentils to eat with basmati
rice. You can add more garlic if you like.
watchforbears at 5:44PM on 10/08/07
The butter at the last moment is a great idea, watchforbears. :)
Arthur Schwartz has five recipes for lentil soup in the book "Soup Suppers", each one of them excellent and different. There's a lentil soup with fennel and sun-dried tomatoes (ei. how can one resist?!); a Lebanese lentil soup; a Moroccan harira with chick-peas and beans; rashta (Lebanese lentil and noodle soup); and spiced lentil soup with beef.
Karen Resta at 7:58PM on 10/08/07
Lentil soup is a staple at my house on New Year's Day. For Italians, lentils symbolize prosperity as they resemble coins. Mom made lentil soup all the time when we were growing up.
therealchiffonade at 5:09AM on 10/09/07
For Italians, lentils symbolize prosperity as they resemble coins.
You've reminded me of the Tolkien poem, therealchiffonade.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
Lentils are rather like gold that does not glitter. :)
Anyway, I had written down what I put in this last lentil soup then lost it somewhere but I found it today (under the toaster of all places). Here it is:
olive oil
carrot, coarse chop
celery, coarse chop
onion, halved and sliced
green pepper, diced (not too much of this)
small can diced tomatoes with their juice
beef broth
salt and pepper
oregano, cumin, hot sauce
green lentils (not brown)
orange zest
parsley minced
cooked corkscrew pasta
Saute carrot celery onion and pepper till soft - add tomatoes and broth, season with salt pepper oregano cumin & hot sauce, add lentils and cook twenty to thirty minutes. Remove from heat, stir in orange zest, parsley, and pasta.
The best parts about this recipe to me (as opposed to others I've made) was the texture of the chunks of vegetable, the texture of the green lentils which do not break down as completely as the brown ones do (they also have less of a taste of soil somehow) and the pasta, which adds interest in an overall taste and texture sense.
Green lentils are not commonly available in the grocery stores around here but can sometimes be found in the whole foods stores. They are a bargain even at three times the price per pound of brown lentils, bite for bite.
Karen Resta at 8:15AM on 10/09/07
Curried lentil soup for me is the great clean-out-the-veg-drawer vehicle. It is always different, and it is always wonderful. I like to make it fairly spicy, with a chicken-broth base, and I use at least 50% orange lentils, because they break down and go wonderfully sludgy. Typical add-ins -- based on what's in the fridge -- would be pumpkin or butternut squash, sweet potatoes, zucchini, white potatoes, cooked broccolini, mushrooms, some kind of hardy green, like kale or collards or chard. I often find that it needs some perking up, and throw in one or two preserved lemons. It's low fat, packed with fiber and nutrients, freezes beautifully, and it somehow gets spicier and more complex in the freezer -- I usually wind up eating it with a dollop of 2% Fage yogurt, as my favorite winter lunch.
maggiesara at 2:40PM on 10/11/07