Hearty lentil soup, chock full of veggies and very yummy. Serve with warm cornbread.

Lentil Soup

onion, chopped

olive oil

carrots, diced

celery,

garlic,

oregano

bay leaf

basil

(14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

dry lentils

water

spinach,

vinegar

salt

black pepper

In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender.  Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 2 minutes.


Stir in lentils, and add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and cook until it wilts. Stir in vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper, and more vinegar if desired.


Based on comments here, I made some substitutions and I think this is the best lentil soup I've had in a long time. I added another 2 carrots, I doubled all the spices. I added 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes, I bought a can of 28oz. crushed tomatoes. I added the 14.5 oz. that the recipe called for, then used the rest mixed with 4 cups of broth and water to make the 8 cups of "water". I used 1 cup brown and 1 cup red lentils, I used 3 T. of lemon juice instead of vinegar, and I added about 3 Tablespoons of port. I guess that's a lot of changes, but trust me, people can't stop eating it. It's really great.

This is a phenomenal recipe. Having lived in Spain and enjoyed true lentil soup, I thought I'd never again appreciate an american version. Boy was I wrong. My adaptations to this great recipe include: 4 carrots, 2 bay leaves, 4 garlic cloves, 8 cups chicken broth instead of water. In the last 30 minutes I add 4 cups spinach, three potatos, and smoked sausage. I blend half and then add back for a really nice texture. This is served great with parmesean cheese and garlic/ mozerella bread.

This is great lentil soup.  My husband said that it was better than any he had had.  I added extra garlic and spinach and omitted the olive oil to cut fat. Also, have tried wine vinegar and balsamic, balsamic is best.  Very "meaty" and tasty, I would definitely recommend.

This soup is the bizzomb. My family ate this up like vultures on a carcass. The only thing I added was the four beers that I drank while cooking.

This lentil soup is excellent!  Definately one of the best I have found, although I did have to make some changes to suit my tastes.  I used 4 garlic cloves instead of 2, added 1 teaspoon each of cumin and curry powder and used 2 cups chicken broth and 6 cups water.  Turned out very good and flavorful.  I also did not see any reason to use so much oil, so I cut that back to 1 tablespoon and that was plenty to saute the vegetables.  The addition of spinach is wonderful and the use of balsamic vinegar really makes a differance. Wonderful soup recipe that I will keep on using!

This is my second review of this recipe (after making my third batch of soup).   I neglected to mention in my first review that I used Stewed Tomatoes (more flavor).  Because of this, I did not add salt.  Also, I used 1/2 of a frozen package of spinach.  I saved the rest for another batch.  We served the last batch over thin spaghetti and found it to be a complete, filling lunch/dinner.  Also, sprinkling with parmesan cheese as noted in other reviews was very good.   I notice that my first review got eliminated.  The point I made there was to use Herb Ox Low Sodiumn Powder Bouillon rather than the regular bouillon (5 grams of sodiuim as opposed to over 1000).  I also put in a couple of dashes of hot chili sauce for a little extra flavor and oomph!!!
Also, I have a Vita Mix and chopped all of the vegetables in it -- quite a time saver.

Very good. I did decrease the oil to 1 tblsp. and added about 1/2 tsp. cumin. It made about 10 cups of soup. Weight Watchers: (with 1 tblsp. oil) this works out to be 2.5 points per cup in my calculations.

I made this recipe and scaled it for 42 since it was going to be a main dish for our school's teacherstaff appreciation lunch. I used stewed tomatoes and vegetable broth which made it vegetarian so those teachers and staff who are vegetarians could enjoy it too. It was well liked, (I loved it!) although I noticed something a few days later. With the leftovers, the spinach was quite yucky and the color became uniform, so it did not look as appealing. I thought it still tasted good, although the flavors all blended a little too much by then making it less flavorful. But if I was making it again and knew ahead of time there would be leftovers I would simply take out the extra BEFORE adding the spinach and fridge it.

this soup is going to be a staple in my winter kitchen. i added my own variations, incorporating some of the other suggestions:

two jalapenos diced (some seeds,)
two zucchini diced,
4 cloves garlic minced,
vegetable stock,
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (not 15 oz),
tablespoon of ginger (store bought grated),
balsamic vinegar (not white),
& i pureed half of the recipe in a blender to thicken it up a bit.

YUM!

How anyone could give this a high rating is a mystery to me. I followed the recipe completely, and it had almost no flavor--kind of like highly diluted salt-free ketchup. I added a scoop of beef Better than Bouillon, which helped a little. A bunch of seasoned croutons on top made it edible but still not good. My wife and I managed to eat one bowl apiece.

See how to make a hearty, healthy, and flavorful vegetarian soup.

lentil soup

Servings: 6

Cost: $9.59 /serving

Author : Bob Cody

Ingredients

Instructions

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