Vegetarian Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Base

• 12C unsalted vegetable stock (or water)
• 455g (1lb) dried lentils, rinsed and sorted (or 38oz canned lentils)
• 8oz fresh spinach (or 16oz frozen spinach)
• 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
• 4 medium ribs of celery, diced
• 3 large carrots, washed, pealed, and cut into 1″ medallions
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed
• 2T olive oil
• 2t honey (or 2t agave nectar to keep vegan)
• 0.5t scorpion pepper hot sauce (or 1t Sriracha)

Spices

• 2t olive oil
• 1.5T turmeric
• 1T harissa powder
• 1T Hungarian paprika
• 1.5t dried oregano
• 1.5t cracked black pepper
• 0.5t crushed red pepper

Acid and Seasoning

• 0.5C double concentration tomato paste
• 1 medium lemon, juiced
• 0.5t smoked salt
• Kosher salt to taste (or vegetable bullion if using water)

Process

Sweat onions, carrots, and celery in 2T olive oil. Mix 2t of olive oil into spices to form a paste. Add paste and garlic to pan and cook until fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Add lentils to pan and briefly toast with vegetables before covering with stock (or water), honey (or agave nectar), and hot sauce. Bring to a gentle boil then let simmer until lentils are soft, about 1 hour.

Only once lentils are tender, add tomato paste, lemon juice, salt/bullion, and spinach. Cook until spinach is wilted and well incorporated, about 15 minutes. For best results, remove from heat and allow to rest for another 15 minutes before garnishing with a drizzle of olive oil and/or a dollop of sour cream and serving with latkes, naan, grilled cheese, or your favorite soup accompaniment.

Notes

This recipe is adapted from a lentil soup recipe I found online when searching around for something to serve with latkes. It is surprisingly versatile and, if you’re a soup fan like me, addicting. At around 150 calories a cup, it’s a great every day soup that can be modified in a number of ways (out of celery? How about some sliced button mushrooms?) and served as part of a hearty lunch, dinner, or even breakfast (if you don’t believe me, try poaching an egg directly in the soup shakshouka style—you can thank me later).

If you use a good scorpion pepper hot sauce, the end result will have a considerable amount of smokey heat that plays very well with smoked salt, but it is entirely possible to make a nice version of this soup without either of those ingredients. Likewise, double concentration tomato paste (which often comes in a tube) is nice, but plain old canned tomato paste will work just fine at a 1:1 substitution ratio. As for type of lentils, I generally use brown, but there is no reason why this recipe could not be made with green, red, or any other type of lentils you can get your hands on.

Whenever cooking any type of dried beans, I always wait until the beans are softened completely to add salt and especially acid. In the case of salt this may not be strictly necessary, however it is in the case of acid, at least in my experience. In general, I prefer to season my soup rather blandly in the pot (I usually use around 1.5t of salt for the ratio listed above), then add more salt to taste to my bowl.