One-Pot Wonders

Warm and Comforting Vegetarian Lentil Soup

by:
December 21, 2009
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves a large pot of soup
Author Notes

When you're snowed in, what's better than a steamy hot bowl of lentil soup? I love Ina Garten's salmon with lentils from her Barefoot in Paris cookbook. I used that recipe as the basis for this soup. All the proportions here are rough--you can add or subtract according to your taste. Lentils absorb a lot of liquid so you may need to add more. If you like your soup more like stew, you can use less liquid, and if you like really thick soup, you can puree some if it with an immersion blender or in a regular blender. I like extra tartness, so I usually finish with a little extra vinegar--you can do that to your taste. —drbabs

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 cup small green lentils, rinsed and picked over
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 large sweet onions, chopped fine
  • 2 leeks, chopped, white and light green parts only
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 3 carrots, chopped fine
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped fine
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 14 ounce can tomatoes, broken up with your fingers, and including liquid
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 3-4 sprigs of thyme that you can remove later)
  • 4 cups vegetable broth, plus more as needed
  • up to a cup of water as needed
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 1 cup spinach, chard or collards, stemmed and roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon sherry or red wine vinegar plus more for finishing
  • more salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
Directions
  1. Heat oil in Dutch oven. Add onions, leeks, celery, carrots, and kosher salt, and saute till onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook for another minute or so.
  2. Stir in tomatoes and cook for another minute. Add lentils, potatoes, wine, vegetable stock and water, bay leaves, cayenne and thyme. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer.
  3. Cook, covered, till lentils are soft and potatoes are cooked through. (You may need to add more water, wine or stock.) Stir in spinach and let it simmer till wilted. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired. Remove the bay leaves.
  4. If you like, puree some of the soup (about 2 cups) in a blender or with an immersion blender to get a thick creamy consistency. Stir in vinegar. Taste and adjust seasonings.
  5. Serve with extra vinegar, salt and pepper to use as desired.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • drbabs
    drbabs
  • Sunchowder
    Sunchowder
  • healthygal
    healthygal
  • Ruby62
    Ruby62

7 Reviews

healthygal August 28, 2013
I bit confused about the water. Step 2 says to add water but there is no mention of how much
 
drbabs August 28, 2013
Hmmm, you're right. Sorry about that. In the headnote, I mention that you might have to add water, depending on how soupy you like your soup, so I know when I make it, i don't usually add water--the vegetable broth and wine are enough. I'd say as little as possible because it will dilute the flavor, and I'll edit teh recipe to reflect that. Thanks. I hope you enjoy it.
 
Ruby62 November 22, 2012
Shall make this as soon as possible, minus the wine, unfortunately
 
drbabs December 29, 2010
Oh--I forgot to add--remove the bay leaves before serving! (But you knew that, right?)
 
drbabs December 29, 2010
(Oops--I didn't realize I could still edit the recipe--it's in there now.)
 
Sunchowder December 28, 2010
This looks so yummy! :)
 
drbabs December 29, 2010
Thanks! I see you've resurfaced! I hope your new year is a good one!