Lentil Soup
3/4 cup lentils (red or green)
1 cup barley
1/2 onion
2 or 3 cloves garlic
1/2 - 1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 medium-sized potato, unpeeled
2 small (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1/8 teaspoon tabasco sauce
bay leaf
1 bouillon packet
spices to taste: oregano, basil,
1 cup cooked she'll macaroni (optional)
This is a wintery soup, but it might be good chilled in the summertime too. Even avowed non-vegetarians find it a refreshing change from rabbit food.
About 45 minutes to make, but tell your guests you slaved over it for hours. A nice blend of textures between the crisp vegetables and the tender grains.
Dice the onions and garlic, and saute them in the bottom of a spaghetti pot. When they are done, reduce heat and mix in the tomato paste and 5-6 cups water until it reaches the consistency of tomato soup. Cut the potato into spoon-sized chunks, and chop the celery and carrot. Add the potato, lentils, barley, bay leaf, spices, tabasco, and bouillon, and stir until the bouillon is dissolved. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes (or until the grains are soft), stirring every so irring every so often to keep the barley from sticking to the bottom of the pot. After the soup is done simmering, add the celery and carrot (and mushroom and macaroni) and let the soup cook uncovered for another 10 minutes. Serve.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
:-X A bit bland for our tastes. You might want to experiment with some more seasoning with this. And another thing, this really is not much of a "soup" and almost more of a stew. So if you're looking for a soup, you might want to add some water to the recipe or before you store in the fridge for the next day as it will be fairly dry once the barley and lentils soak everything up. Has promise as a recipe, just needs a bit of refinement and experimentation for us.
My family loves this soup. I leave out the tabasco and I've never added the macaroni. It's great for dipping a good crusty bread into!
Functions also as a bean dip. A good stuffing for peppers/veggies.
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Will activate account at the end of next week so until then IM me or email me using the email(same for IM address) listed above 8)
You are asking the wrong person? I am new to this vegan thing. So everything is trial and error right now. More error than anything else ;D. If you want to chat some time we can instant message my im is eval(unescape('%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%70%65%74%65%72%73%6f%6e%5f%63%68%72%69%73%31%40%79%61%68%6f%6f%2e%63%6f%6d%22%3e%70%65%74%65%72%73%6f%6e%5f%63%68%72%69%73%31%40%79%61%68%6f%6f%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b')). WOuld love to talk.
Thank you for your reply. I am going out to buy dried lentils right now!
I've never used canned lentils before, but I've heard they're not terribly nice. I understand why people would want to to use canned beans, since dried beans take so long to cook, but dried lentils cook up in about a half hour, so I would just used dried if you can. Plus, canned beans/pulses are so salty! Another advantage of dried is that you can control the sodium content.
This might be a stupid question but can you use cooked lentils from a can or must they be dry?