Ev's Lentil Soup (Greek - Fakess)
photo by Tar8805
- Ready In:
- 2hrs 20mins
- Ingredients:
- 12
- Serves:
-
10-12
ingredients
- 1 lb small dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
- 1⁄2 cup bulgur wheat (optional) or 1/2 cup pearl barley (optional)
- 2 large onions, minced
- 5 garlic cloves, quartered
- 4 medium carrots, grated fine
- 2 1⁄2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 large bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons salt, to taste (or you can use 3 beef stock cubes with 1/2 tsp salt for this amount)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 1⁄2 quarts boiling water
- 3⁄4 cup olive oil
- 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
directions
- In a large pot, cover lentils with boiling water and allow to boil for 10 minutes.
- Drain lentils of this ‘first boiling’ (greeks think that this process makes the lentils easier to digest – I prefer it).
- Put lentils back into pot.
- Add bulgar or barley (if using), onions, garlic, carrots, tomato paste, bay leaves, salt and pepper.
- Pour 2 ½ quarts of boiling water over lentils, bring to a boil.
- When mixture boils, decrease temperature to leave the lentils cooking at a simmer and cook, covered, for 1 ½ hours.
- Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and simmer ½ an hour longer.
- Taste.
- If the lentils are still too firm to the bite, allow to cook until they are tender and soup has thickened (soup will continue to thicken as it cools).
- If the soup is too thick, you can thin with a little hot water.
- Traditionally, we eat this soup with lots of Kalamata olives, feta cheese and crusty bread.
- I serve half the soup on one day and freeze the other half (it freezes beautifully) to serve on another day when I’m too busy to cook.
- Crockpot Version: Put all the ingredients except for olive oil and balsamic vinegar into your crockpot.
- Cook on low for 7 hours.
- Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and cook a further 2 hours.
- Ev's notes: You can enrich this already delicious soup by making a couple of variations. Add 1/2 lb of minced bacon, but cut back the olive oil to a couple of tablespoonfuls; or add 1 lb of sliced sausage, like Kielbasa. Again, cut back on the oil.
- New note: (added Dec. 27, 2004) I have taken to adding 1/2 cup bulgur wheat to this soup when I add all the other ingredients; it makes the soup more nutritionally complete if totally vegetarian, and really good and hearty; I strongly urge you try this version.
- Freezer Note: This makes quite a lot of soup - definitely enough for 2 meals (plus a little extra for the super-hungry) for my family of 5. I have taken to freezing half the batch to provide me with a quick, nutritious dinner further on down the line when time is short and you don't want to resort to ordering inches Just defrost in microwave, reheat well and serve.
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Reviews
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Tweaks
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Okay, I am the odd one of the bunch - but maybe it is because I didn't add the optional beef stock or something but I found this soup to be vary bland in taste. I actually tripled the amount of salt and still didn't think there was much flavor. If I made it again, I would substitute the water for chicken or beef broth, add more salt or seasonings, and add the whole small can of paste instead of only 2 tbsp.
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OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.