Lentil Soup
I was a little sick this week, so Wednesday I stayed home from work and rested up a bit. Since I was sick, of course I wanted soup. I don’t care for canned soup, and Tommy wasn’t available to make soup for me, so I picked an easy soup recipe that didn’t require much preparation. I browsed through my classic Italian cookbook and found a recipe for Lentil Soup. Having had lentils for the first time only last month and loving them, I decided that this soup was definitely the one. It is somewhere between a soup and an entrée though, because it has a lot of pasta in it. In the end, the pasta absorbs all of the liquid, making it not very soupy at all. But still very tasty, and a good hearty soup for someone feeling a bit under the weather. You can also adjust the liquid portion as well. The recipe called for 9 cups of chicken stock, but I felt that would be a little too strong for my tastes, so I used only 7 cups of stock and 2 cups of water. The lentils are very flavorful, so I think that you could even reduce the amount of chicken stock used even more. It depends on what your tastes are I suppose. I ate this for lunch, and then when Tommy came home, we made Paninis and had a bowl of the lentil soup with our Paninis. The original recipe calls for brown lentils, but I already had French green lentils, so that is what I used. I am anxious to use other lentils for cooking with to see how much of a difference each colored lentil is.
Lentil Soup
Ingredients
1 cup dried lentils (brown or green)
6 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery stalks
2 small carrots
7 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 sage leaf, chopped (or 1/8 tsp dried sage)
1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1/4 tsp dried thyme)
Salt and Pepper
2 1/2 cups small pasta (I used this mini-bow tie pasta, Orzo would work as well. Ditalini or Pastina would work best if you can find it where you live)
Preparation
Put lentils in a bowl and cover with cold water, soak for 2 hours. After lentils are done soaking, heat the oil in large pot. Add the onion and cook until it softens. Add the celery and carrots and cook for 5 more minutes. Add the lentils, chicken stock, water, and herbs. Bring the soup to a boil, then cook over moderate heat (a low boil) for 1 hour. Add salt and pepper if needed. Stir in the pasta and cook until the pasta is done (this is where most of the liquid in the soup will begin to disappear. Eat.