Lentil Soup

Lentils are a wonderful food.  They require no soaking, thereby eliminating prep work required with other dry beans; they are hearty, wholesome, and filling.  Also, a pound of them costs about $1.30 and can easily make a meal for a whole family.  In my younger days, my mom would often pick up a package that included a spice mix and lentils.  It told you how to cook quite a delicious soup, even down to what and how much regarding other ingredients.  If you buy a bag of lentils, it usually will have a recipe on the back on how to make lentil soup.  I prefer to consider these recipes as suggestions.

 Photo by Rebecca Freiday

For instance, I recently purchased a one pound bag of Jack Rabbit Brand lentils.  Their suggested recipe is as follows:

1 lb dry lentils (washed)     1 cup carrot, chopped
8 cups water                     3 onions, chopped coarsely
3 1/2 cups beef broth         2 tablespoons garlic, minced
1 smoked ham bone          1 bay leaf
1 cup celery, chopped

"In a 6-8 quart pot combine all ingredients and simmer soup, lid tilted, stirring occasionally, 1 1/2 hours.  Discard bay leaf and remove meat from ham bone.  Chop meat and stir into soup.  Serves 6 to 8."

It is a beautifully simple recipe, and I'm sure that if you followed it to the letter it would be pretty good.  However, it assumes that you have all of the ingredients exactly.  I didn't care to buy a smoked ham bone, being on the wrong side of wealthy, nor did I want to buy or make beef broth when I knew I had chicken broth at home.  Chicken sausage was on sale and I've used it successfully in lentil soup before, so I thought that it would make a good substitute for some meaty texture.  I didn't have three unspecified onions (there are many types of onions out there; one can safely bet on yellow onions if it isn't otherwise indicated in the recipe), but I did have one extremely large super-sweet onion from the farmer's market.

I had the advantage of being able to utilize my dad's pantry, however (still on my dog-sitting vacation, after all). Canned diced tomatoes were in stock, which I thought would make a nice addition both texturally and in regards to flavor.  His spice cabinet is also very well stocked.  In the end, my ingredient list looked like this:

1 lb lentils                                                             9 medium cloves fresh garlic, minced
3 cups low sodium chicken broth*                          about 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 lb canned diced tomatoes                                   8 cups water
3 medium unpeeled carrots, chopped                     about 1 tablespoon cumin
1 celery heart, chopped                                         1 bay leaf
1/2 large super-sweet onion                                   black ground pepper, to taste
1 package Bilsaski's spinach and garlic sausage

To achieve Becky's lentil soup (bloup?), combine vegetable oil, carrots, onion, celery, and some pepper and heat over medium low heat until soft, stirring occasionally.  Add sausage and allow some juice to get out.  Add the garlic for a minute then add everything else in no particular order (though you should probably start with something liquid on account of the garlic).  Bring to a simmer, then mostly cover the pot and allow to simmer for about an hour and a half.  Serve hot.

I frequently don't bother to measure some ingredients, especially if I like them- note here the carrots and celery.  If you aren't the artistic type, or cooking doesn't come naturally to you, I would refer to guidelines until you get more comfortable with the recipe and how much leeway you have in matters such as these.

One of the problems I had with Jack Rabbit's recipe is that they very simply say to combine and simmer all the ingredients, without realizing the extra flavor that sauteing (eg, frying) vegetables can impart to a dish.  Keep in mind that garlic burns woefully quickly, and throw it on at the last possible minute.  Toasting spices can add dimension to their flavor, and is used in Indian cooking, especially when it comes to dry curries.  It's something worth experimenting with.  The addition of cumin here is a nod to the frequent use of lentils in Indian and Middle Eastern cooking; not to mention that cumin just tastes really good.

A quick note on the chicken broth: I used Wild Harvest brand since that's what was in the fridge, and while I'm not usually the type to promote brands, I have to say that this is a very delicious broth that when opened smells of Thanksgiving.

This is an easily tweaked recipe and can become vegan in a heartbeat with the elimination of the sausage and substitution of vegetable broth for chicken broth.

Photo by Rebecca Freiday

Final thoughts: I ended up adding more pepper to my first bowl of soup (for a late lunch), but when I had a second bowl for dinner later on, I found that the flavors had intensified/married enough where I didn't need additional seasoning.  Next time I might try roasting the vegetables, or at least the garlic, instead of sauteing them; more garlic might be in order as well.  I was quite pleased with the end result of this particular culinary adventure.