added this 17 years ago
Egyption Lentil Soup
What you need:
bay leaf
1 cup dry lentils
5 cups water
1 veggie bouillon cube
3 tablespoons vegan margarine
salt
2 limes
3 dashes vinegar
1 onion
basil- fresh or not (can be omitted)
What you do:
Put lentils into large pot with water, salt and bay leaf. Let soak for 15 minutes and, using a spoon, remove floating matter. Cook on high until they start to boil then simmer for about 45 minutes.
When lentils finish, add bouillon, margarine, lime juice, vinegar and basil.
Cut onion into small pieces and saute in 1 tablespoon margarine.
Add onion to pot with soup.
Serve over basmati rice, bagel, or fresh bread.
I've made many lentil soups and this is my favorite!
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SO HOW'D IT GO?
This is a great recipe, but the lime flavor in mine was overpowering. I may have just squeezed too much out of them, but next time I'm going to try it with just one lime. Otherwise this was a very easy and delicious soup!
I was looking for something very simple, fast, and soothing, and I randomly had several fresh limes on hand, so I went for this (swayed by snoogans1981's remark, above). She's exactly right: this is fabulously flavorful despite containing just a few pantry staples. It reminds me of a Syrian version I used to get by my old school in Providence—except they used fresh lemon instead of lime.
Slight mods: I only had half a sweet onion left in the fridge, so I added three plump garlic cloves as the onion was sauteing. I used Earth Balance for the vegan margarine. I also zested my limes with a microplane and added the zest after turning off the heat. It all came together in less than 30 minutes for me (perhaps my lentils are very fresh? I used small brown ones with the skins still on, but they cooked very quickly).
Eating with brown basmati and whole wheat pita. Thanks, littleoddforest : )
To be honest, I thought this soup would be a bit dull, but I'm moving back to the States this week and needed to use up all of the food left in my pantries. It just so happened that I had all of the ingredients for this soup, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It was absolutely delicious! Although it doesn't have many ingredients, it's fabulously flavorful. I'll be making this as often as possible, that's for sure! Thanks so much!
This recipe is great! I make it all the time and everyone loves it.
If you're out of lentils, yellow split peas also work very well.
:)