Lentil Soup - BEST EVER
This is really the best tasting lentil soup--seasoning is subtle but very interesting.
This is really the best tasting lentil soup--seasoning is subtle but very interesting.
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 1/2 cups lentils washed and picked over
- 1 pound carrots peeled and sliced
- 1/2 pound small white potatoes washed and cut into cubes
- 2 big pinches dried thyme
- 1 big pinch ground nutmeg
- 8 cups chicken broth (you can use veggie too)
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic (use however much you like. i love garlic)
- fresh spinach
- dried porcini mushromms
- sauteed, chopped chicken sausage
- Carbohydrate 78.0011914041659 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 2.64244487108714 g
- Fiber 32.1119565769433 g
- Protein 28.2500907812325 g
- Saturated Fat 0.311675305637226 g
- Serving Size 1 1 large bowl (787g)
- Sodium 1983.084488842 mg
- Sugar 45.8892348272226 g
- Trans Fat 1.16152854045878 g
- Calories 437 calories
Step-by-step
- Chop up all your veggies first. And use absolutely whatever you want to use when it comes to veggies.
- Put the lentils, carrots, potatoes, bay leaves, thyme, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a pot with 8 cups of your stock. Bring it to a boil and then turn the heat to low and keep it there, stirring it occasionally.
- Put the olive oil in a skillet and toss in your onions and garlic, cooking on medium low for about 5 minutes. The onion should be soft. Set aside. Saute chopped chicken sausage in same pan, if you are using some.
- After your stock/lentil/veggie mixture has been cooking for about 30-40 minutes, take the bay leaves out and put the onions and garlic in. Taste it and add more seasonings if you want. I added a bit more nutmeg into the mix because I really wanted my soup to taste like fall.
- If you want yours to have a more soupy consistency, you can add more stock in. Add onion & garlic mixture, then spinach near end of cooking. Add sauteed sausage at very end. Serve with salt and pepper to taste.
Sweating onions and garlic over medium-low heat for exactly five minutes prevents scorching while releasing sulfur compounds into the oil. Rushing this step on high heat turns the aromatics bitter before they soften. Lentil soups present a unique scaling challenge because legumes absorb liquid at unpredictable rates. Doubling the batch requires more than simply multiplying the broth by two. Dried legumes demand extra hydration surface area, meaning a doubled recipe typically needs an extra cup of stock beyond the strict 2:1 ratio to prevent the pot from turning into a thick stew. Conversely, halving the recipe concentrates the spices quickly, so cut the ground cinnamon and nutmeg by half initially rather than scaling linearly. Warm spice profiles in legume soups trace centuries of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern culinary traditions where pinches of aromatic bark and seed spices counterbalance earthy pulses. Carrots and small white potatoes require thirty to forty minutes of simmering to break down their starches, which naturally thicken the broth without flour or cream. Tough green or brown lentils hold their shape during this window, whereas split red varieties disintegrate entirely into mush. Dried porcini mushrooms rehydrate directly in the simmering stock, imparting umami compounds that deepen the background flavor significantly. Adding fresh spinach and sautéed chicken sausage at the very end prevents the greens from turning drab olive-green and keeps the meat proteins from tightening into rubbery bites. Store leftovers in an airtight glass container within the refrigerator for up to four days, keeping in mind that the lentils will continue absorbing moisture overnight and will require a splash of water during reheating.
