THE BEST LENTIL SOUP EVER, Double Duty, Frugal, Healthy, Low-Fat, Vegan option

Once you've made this, you will make it again and again.

Best Ever Lentil Soup, with kielbasa Polish sausage

Out of all the lentil soups 67goingon50 has encountered in a lifetime, this one is a real winner.  A 5-star main-course soup, it has superb flavour and texture.   
   
It's a Double Duty Dish (DDD) and to make life even easier, there's no divvying up of the base.  The vegetarian and meat options are served separately, on the side.  

It's also a Cook Clever dish; even half a recipe gives plenty of leftovers which can be frozen. 

Adapted from the incomparable Ina Garten and made with green lentils, the soup's ingredients are beautifully balanced.   It's heavy on chopped vegetables, especially onions and leeks, but they give the soup its distinctive character.  A good sharp knife makes short work of the onions but if you have a food processor, you can use the coarse blade.  

For vegetarians, rice crackers or a sprinkling of parmesan ensures a good balance of amino acids.  Or add a good vegetarian frankfurter like Tivali.   

If you eat meat, the addition of a spicy Polish sausage like kielbasa, or shards of ham hock, or sliced chicken frankfurters, takes it to higher level.  

Cost: £3.50 (3/23) + garnishes
Serves: a large crowd; for a family,  halve the recipe or make the lot and freeze for a busier time

Ingred:
      
    16 oz/450gm green lentils  
    
    3 lge yellow onions (about 600 gm/21 oz  small dice
    2 lge leeks, whites only (600 gm/21 oz) small dice
    3 cloves garlic, grated
    1 tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme
    1 tsp cumin
    min 1 tsp  - max 1 tbsp salt
    1 1/2 tsp pepper
    
    8 stalks celery (10 1/2 oz/300 g) peeled and in small dice
    4-6 med carrots, scrubbed and in small dice
    5.3 pints/3 litres good veggie stock (or chicken if not feeding vegetarians)  
    min 1 - max 2 oz/ min 30 - max 60 ml tomato puree
    2 tbsp red wine/ red wine vinegar/grape juice

Method:

1. Cover lentils with boiling water, leave for 25 mins. Drain and rinse
2. Leeks: slice the white part down the middle, making two vertical halves, and then each in half horizontally; lay flat sides down on a chopping board and cut carefully into four strips, then into small dice.  Rinse thoroughly.  
3. In a large heavy bottomed pan, saute onions, leeks, garlic, thyme, cumin, salt & pepper in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, over medium heat. Cook 20 mins or until very tender, stirring occasionally to prevent catching.
4. Add lentils, celery, carrots, stock, tomato puree, red wine/ red wine vinegar/grape juice and stock
5. Cover & bring to the boil; bubble hard for 5 mins; reduce heat to med low; uncover and simmer at a low bubble one hour or until lentils cooked through.  
6. Serve with cheese or meat options on the side

Tips:

• Green lentils are now reasonably priced
• The recipe halves well
• Leftovers can be frozen or served over rice
• Add vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower to ring the changes.

Ina Garten The Barefoot Contessa, Freeview 43,

                    & Food Network.co.uk
             
   

   

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This recipe has been adapted by B M Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises.  It may not be reproduced without the author's written permission.