Easy and Quick Vegetable and Orange Lentil Soup

 

I've been craving my homemade vegetable soup for quite a while, and I didn't have much patience to wait. An easy shortcut requires a can of beans, but we didn't have any. then I remembered the orange lentils I had bought. They cook up very quickly.

Ingredients (I don't measure exactly, so there's no need to obsess about exact quantities)

• large onion
• medium squash
• nice sized chunk of sweet potato
• celeriac
• coarse salt, pepper (coarse is best,) parsley-- either fresh or dehydrated
• if you have carrots, add one or more, mushrooms also good, ditto for fresh parsley or celery

Instructions: 

• cut in small chunks or slices
• put all in a large pot
• start sautéing in oil
• add at least a half cup of orange lentils
• boil a couple of liters of water
• add the boiling water and cover
• as soon as the soup begins to boil, turn down the flame to just simmer

Cook until it's all soft, and the lentils are mushy.

Red Lentil Mushroom Vegetable Soup

This Red Lentil Mushroom Vegetable Soup tastes unbelievably good, and I could say that I just threw a few things together. 

I served this soup to break the Tisha B'Av Fast on a very hot summer day. It was absolutely perfect and required relatively little cooking. I didn't measure all the ingredients, and one can be flexible and creative. It isn't some sort of chemistry formula.

You can see almost all of the ingredients here.

Ingredients:

• about half a cup of orange lentils (more can be used)
• 1 large onion
• 2 medium squash
• fresh garlic
• a can of mushroom pieces
• dehydrated parsley, fresh would be great
• a spoon or so of vegetable oil
• a bit of coarse salt and pepper

Directions:

• put the lentils in the pot and cover plus with boiling water. Leave covered for an hour or more
• dice up the vegetables, including garlic, then add to lentils, 
• put in pot with the mushrooms and liquid from can 
• top with the oil and some more water and parsley
• bring to boil, add salt and pepper, then simmer
• 40 minutes cooking time, unless you decide to add carrots or any other root vegetable you want in the soup. They take longer to cook.

That's it! ENJOY

Light Summery Lentil Vegetable Soup

Light Summery Lentil Vegetable Soup

Nutritionnix

I made this Light Summery Lentil Vegetable Soup on Sunday to break the fast of the 17th of Tammuz, but I've been enjoying the leftovers ever since. And my husband has had it for lunch with pasta added to make it more filling. It's labeled "light," because the orange lentils cook quickly and disintegrated, unlike peas, rice, barley or pasta.

Since I didn't measure the ingredients, I'll just list them. My cooking is very flexible. Measuring is very rare. 

• orange lentils
• onion 
• carrot
• squash
• pumpkin
• mushrooms
• a bit of vegetable oil, coarse salt and coarse pepper
• water, of course

Cooking was in two steps. First I poured boiling water over the lentils, covered and waited over an hour. Then I added the cut up vegetables and the oil. Once it was boiling, I added more boiling water, plus the salt and pepper. Once it's boiling nicely, lower the flame to simmer for 35 minutes to an hour depending on your pot.

You can add other vegetables or leave some out. Generally I add some dill or parsley-- dehydrated is fine, but since I was fasting my mind wasn't fully there.

This is a very easy to make soup. Enjoy.

Easy Filling Vegetable Lentil Soup

Why do I post so many Vegetable Soup recipes/posts?

That's because, they're all a bit different, and I never follow an exact recipe!

Yesterday afternoon, while observing the Tisha B'Av fast, an important event on the Jewish Calendar, I realized that I had better start preparations for my fast-breaking vegetable soup. Since I wanted a nice hearty soup with lentils and brown rice, it needed time.

Ingredients- Quantities aren't holy, just recommendations:
1/3 cup brown rice (I used round brown)
1/3 cup orange lentils
1/3 cup brown lentils
1 large onion, diced
2 medium carrots cut
1 large squash cut
1/2 sweet potato (you can use a whole one) cut
pinch plus of coarse salt
coarse black pepper
1/4 cup dehydrated dill
vegetable oil
boiling water

Step #1
Check the rice and lentils. Add to a large pot, pour in boiling water to cover plus, cover and leave for at least an hour.

Step #2

An hour or more before you want to serve the soup, add the rest of the ingredients. Water should not reach more than a couple of inches from the top of the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the flame to simmer. Cook covered.

Step #3

Stir periodically. You may have to add a bit more water. Turn off heat when the lentils and rice are nice and soft. Keep covered until serving. Yes, that's it. Very easy and simple to make. You can add other vegetables, seasonings etc. 

Surprisingly Simple Low Carb Vegetable Soup

Today was a fast day according to the Jewish Calendar, the (delayed/postponed*) 17th of Tammuz. As is my custom, I made a vegetable soup for the fast-breaking meal. Personally, I feel better eating soup after a fast. Raw vegetables "burn" my mouth. I eat a few bowls of soup after drinking lots of water. Since the only lentils in the house were these quick-cooking orange lentils, that's what I used. They are perfect for soups, especially when you don't have much time, which was the case today. I slept away too much of the afternoon and started my cooking much later than usual. Orange lentils cook very quickly, barely ten minutes, which was perfect.

Ingredients, sorry but you don't need exact quantities

1/2 cup orange lentils
3 medium carrots
1 large onion
2 small squash (light zucchini)
generous handful of dehydrated dill
a bit of oil, coarse salt and pepper
water

Preparation

1. check lentils for stones, bugs whatever
2. cut onion rather small
3. add onion to pot with lentils and a bit of vegetable oil
4. heat on medium flame for a few minutes
5. add boiling water to cover
6. cover pot and lower flame to simmer
7. cut carrots and squash into bite size pieces
8. add to pot along with the dill, salt and pepper
9. add more water, but not too high in the pot
10. medium flame until boiling, then simmer
11. It should be ready in 15-20 minutes, though you can cook it longer. Just check if the vegetables are soft.

You can add more vegetables and seasoning in you want.

ENJOY!  And tell me how yours came out, how your varied it etcetera.

*The actual date 17th of Tammuz fell on Shabbat when we don't fast, with the exception of Yom Kippur. So the fasting took place on Sunday the 18th of Tammuz

Nothing Better than Vegetable Soup

Yesterday afternoon I made myself a much too full pot of vegetable soup full of brown lentils, onion, carrots, ginger, squash, garlic and finely sliced mushrooms. Yes, that's all the ingredients, plus a bit of oil and water, of course.

Cooking on my new gas stove top is such a pleasure. One advantage is that it heats and cooks so quickly. I no longer have to boil water in the electric kettle for cooking purposes. The old electric hotplate I had been using was so slow, I was always supplementing with the kettle, whether for pasta, soup etc.

To make this soup, I started a few of hours early and put the lentils in the pot, added water to cover, plus, and then boiled it for a few minutes, turned off the flame and covered the covered pot with a towel to keep in the heat.

Then, about an hour or more before I needed to eat the soup, I cut up all the vegetables and added them to the lentils, topping with some cooking oil, and began to cook it all on a high flame. As soon as it began to boil, I added more water until about an inch, 2cm from the top of the pot. Then I had it reach boil again and lowered the flame to simmer. Actually, I moved the pot from the double-flame to a weaker one.

When the soup looked almost cooked, vegetables were soft, I added some coarse salt and coarse pepper. It's better to add less than you think would be good, since people can always add more, but you can't reduce salt and pepper in cooked food. About ten minutes later I turned off the flame and let the food continue cooking on its own. It didn't need more than a total of forty minutes of cooking time.

This, easy to prepare, vegan vegetable soup is a full meal. If you eat dairy, you can put a slice of yellow cheese on the bottom of your bowl before serving for an extra tasty protein treat.

Enjoy!

This Year's Purim Soups, Yes Two 2

I feel best breaking fasts on vegetable soup. The Jewish Calendar has a number of fasts in the year, and one of them is the day before Purim. My custom is to spend the afternoon making soup. That's what I did yesterday afternoon.

Since I no longer have, nor usually need, a supersized pot, I made two pots of soup. Another reason was that I had lentils and peas I wanted to use up. So instead of mixing them into one soup, I made two different ones.

Lentil-Ginger Soup

The Lentil-Ginger Soup ingredients:

lentils
onion
fresh garlic
carrots
sweetpotato
fresh ginger
parsley root and leaves
a spoon or two of vegetable oil
salt to taste, or a just a bit less

Instructions:

• A few hours before I plan on cooking the soup, I put the checked lentils in a pot and add boiling water to cover and then cover the pot.
• Afterwards I cut all the vegetables, add them, except for the parsley leaves, to the lentils, add the oil and some more boiling water. 
• Cover, start cooking on a high flame, then lower it to simmer for at least 45 minutes.
• Add the parsley and salt.
• Cook a few more minutes, and then let it sit covered.

Enjoy!

Simple Pea and Carrot Soup

The  Simple Pea and Carrot Soup Ingredients:

onion
garlic
carrots
squash
parsley
root and leavesvegetable oil
coarse black pepper and salt "to taste"

Instructions:

• A few hours before I plan on cooking the soup, I put the checked peas in a pot and add boiling water to cover and then cover the pot. 
• Afterwards I cut all the vegetables, add them, except for the parsley leaves, to the lentils, add the oil and some more boiling water. 
•  Cover, start cooking on a high flame, then lower it to simmer for at least 45 minutes. 
• Add the parsley and salt. 
• Cook a few more minutes, and then let it sit covered.

Enjoy!

After sampling both soups, I decided to try them mixed/together. 

I hope my neighbors like the soups they'll be getting for mishloach manot, Purim food gifts as much as I did.