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2/22/10

Quick cooking lentil soup with home-made croutons

I've been meaning to post this recipe for a while now. Here's what happened: in January, I made and photographed a recipe for Lentil, Tomato & Basil Salad for Robyn's blog. The recipe used quick cooking sprouted green lentils.


I had about a cup of those lentils left. Then a few weeks ago, DC area had a huge snow blizzard, which caused me to lose power the entire Saturday (February 6th). Luckily, I have a gas stove, which allowed me to prepare this Quick cooking lentil soup with home-made croutons.

Ingredients
olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled, chopped
3 garlic cloves, sliced
5 cups water
1 cup quick cooking sprouted green lentils
1 bay leaf
1 potato, peeled, diced
several slices of whole wheat bread, crust removed, cut into cubes
garlic powder


Directions
1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onion, carrots and garlic and saute until tender.
2. Meanwhile, bring water to boil, add quick cooking lentils and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add potatoes to the lentils, season with salt, and add a bay leaf. Cook for about 20 minutes till potatoes are tender.
4. Add onion/carrots/garlic mixture to the lentils and potatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust the flavor with salt and pepper.
5. For the croutons: In a cast iron skillet heat olive oil. Add your bread cubes. Season with garlic salt to taste and cook till the bread is browned on all sides. (Originally I was planning on making the croutons in the oven, but my oven was not working without power.)

If you don't have quick cooking sprouted lentils, use the regular kind: you'll just have to cook them longer than 5 minutes...most likely at least 30 minutes.  The consistency of this soup is closer to the stew. You can add more liquid if you want, or you can even puree the final product.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yummy soup and I like your homemade croutons!

Justin said...

i should really make homemade croutons more often -- i've done it a couple of times, but i'm usually too lazy

Unknown said...

Yesterday I made a dahl with green lentils. Green lentils are fab :D

Simones Kitchen said...

I love homemade croutons too (made them the other day in my peasoup with feta) and this looks delicious too. I don't think I have ever seen quick cooking sprouted lentils though... :)

Maria said...

I love lentil soup. Nice touch with the croutons.

Maija Haavisto said...

I've never even heard of sprouted lentils before. :-o Probably can't get them here in Finland.

Sounds like a nice soup ...but where are the spices? :->

Lot-O-Choc said...

mmm wow your soup looks so tasty and chunky! i adore soup and this one sure looks delicious!

Delicious Dishings said...

I just posted about lentil soup too! Mine didn't have potatoes - that would be a great addition!

LetMeEatCake Eat With Me! said...

I love lentil soup, but not the mushy kind. Your soup looks perfect- chunky and light. I hope when I cook it I don't make the lentils too mushy I have a problem with that =)

The Nervous Cook said...

I loved being able to read this while eating tonight's dinner of lentils with onions and sweet potatoes, and just dreaming of what else to do with the mishmash collection of pulses in my cabinets. I love lentils so much! Go, lentils, go!

Gera@SweetsFoodsBlog said...

The lentil delicious soup with croutons is a nice way to enjoy these cold days here :)

Cheers,

Gera

Anonymous said...

YUM-this soup sounds delicious and so hearty! I have been wanting to make a soup with lentils for a while now so I will definitely be giving this recipe a try :)

Dgrub said...

Nice post on lentil soup. Carrots and potatoes are indeed great with it. Here's a related post http://desigrub.com/2010/02/the-best-lentil-soup-with-or-without-a-crockpot/ . Lemme know what you think.

BlueToYou said...

super smart to make this with croutons!! :-D