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| My Special Lentil Soup |
If you’re trying to lose weight, this is a good low-calorie soup to make ahead of time and reheat later for lunches or serve along with dinner.
Dried legumes usually need to soak overnight before you cook them. However, lentils cook up rather fast so just sort for any small rocks, then rinse and put them in pot with the water to cook until softened.
To make it even more filling, I add some type of noodle or elbow macaroni but it tastes just as good plain. For the days when I’m lazy or rushed, I will dump in some dried ready-made pasta. However, I do prefer homemade noodles every time. There is no comparison of the taste and quality of homemade to what you can buy.
Here is the recipe for my homemade pasta dough that I always use that is quite easy, especially when you whip it up in your food processor. If you haven’t tried to make your own dough yet, you truly are missing out something so extra delicious. It also saves you money when you figure out the cost compared to boxes of those commercial brands.
I use a pasta machine that you attach to your table and crank by hand. It really isn’t a lot work or very hard to do. It takes me only about 30 minutes to finish and clean up when I make a batch (about five cups) for both soup and a pasta dinner.
I don’t recommend the electronic models because they are extremely slow compared to the crank variety. My friend had one and hated it so much that she sold it at her garage sale before getting a manual one like mine.
By the way, I also have another wonderful lentil soup recipe that you might want to try as well that I shared at an earlier time. This one is for red lentil vegetarian soup with a tomatoes and spinach that you should check out also.
I do hope you try these wonderful recipes because they are full of fiber, protein, and lots of vitamins and nutrients to keep you healthy and going.
My Special Lentil Soup
6 cups of water
1 cup of dried lentils
1 medium onion
4 or 5 stalks of celery, diced
1 carrot, peeled and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup of olive oil
8 small potatoes or 5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon of dried basil leaves
½ cup of flour
1 cup of dried elbow macaroni or noodles
Sort your lentils for small rocks because there is always a chance that you might find one. Rinse and then keep the lentils in water until the vegetables are prepared.
Start with browning the onions and celery in the olive oil until golden before adding the carrots and potatoes to your pan.
Continue cooking the vegetables for a few minutes and then take off of the heat and coat with the flour for your roux.
Add the coated vegetables and your seasonings to your water and waiting lentils and cook. Check periodically until the vegetables are soft as well as the lentils.
What I normally do is toward the end of the soup’s cooking time, I just throw in the dry macaroni or noodles and cook until the preferred degree of firmness. On other days, I will make my homemade noodles, which I do boil first before adding some to the soup.
Serve when the noodles or macaroni gets ready.
ENJOY!
