lentil soup

lentils go into the pan

after my first foray with making a soup from scratch at home, i began avidly looking for more soup recipes to create in my own kitchen. i landed on a lentil soup from the amazing cookbook eat, drink, and be vegan, by dreena burton, and immediately whipped up a large pot of the thick and homey soup.

red lentilsthe beginning ingredients

when i made the lentil soup a few weeks ago, the clocks had just changed to pacific standard time, the days were dark, cold, and rainy, and this soup was our lifeline, keeping us warm and cozy for three meals (it made six servings total).

i don’t know about the temperature in your neck of the woods, but here in santa cruz, the temperature has turned unseasonably warm this week, to the point of wearing summer clothes again. so i’m sitting here in my living room with our sliding door open to let in the warm breeze, and trying to think of great adjectives to describe how this soup heated up our whole home as we made it, and was the perfect fall/winter meal – and i’m failing miserably, because nothing sounds appetizing right now except for a cool, crisp salad. don’t you think it’s interesting how much the seasons and temperatures affect our eating desires?

so when the weather remembers that it’s mid-november again, i suggest you pull out this recipe…but until then, i’d hold off on making this yummy soup. if you can, try to make the soup a day before you consume it, because adding over two tablespoons of vinegar after the soup has boiled down made the soup quite strong and sharp the first night we ate it. over time the vinegar taste mellowed and became much more enjoyable.

mellow lentil “sniffle” soup

adapted from eat, drink, and be vegan by dreena burton
yields 8 servings
  • 1½T olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1c celery, diced
  • 1c carrots, diced
  • 3 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2t salt (you may need to add more to taste at the end)
  • 1/2t pepper (you may need to add more to taste at the end)
  • 1t curry powder
  • 1t paprika
  • 1t rosemary
  • 2c dry red lentils
  • 3c vegetable stock
  • 4c water
  • 2½T apple cider vinegar
    ________________________________________
  1. add oil to a large pot on medium heat
  2. add onion, celery, carrots, garlic, salt, pepper, curry, paprika, and rosemary, stirring to combine
  3. cover and cook for 8 minutes, stirring once or twice
  4. meanwhile, rinse the lentils, and add them plus the stock and water
  5. increase heat and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes, until lentils are completely softened (our lentils disintegrated a bit, making the consistency much like split pea soup)
  6. stir in vinegar and season to taste with additional salt and pepper and enjoy!

the finished product

4 thoughts on “lentil soup”

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