I love lentils! There I said it… 😉 It wasn’t always that way though. I went 20+ years never trying a lentil, and just assuming I didn’t like it. The beautiful thing about marrying into a family that has a completely different culture and lifestyle than yours is you get to experience new things, and lots of new types of food. My mother-in-law is a phenomenal cook, and because I know she reads my posts… (Hi!) 🙂
The first time I ever tried lentil soup was at her house. My daughter, who was no more than 2 at the time was inhaling it, so I knew it was something I wanted to make over and over. To this day, I make lentil and brown rice soup about once a month for us. It’s super healthy, and it’s a great little meal to have on hand in the freezer when you have those days that you’d rather claw your eyeballs out than cook. I get it 😉
You’ll need…
- 3 carrots
- 2 stalks of celery
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cloves chopped garlic
- 4 plum tomatoes (or 1 can of diced tomatoes)
- 1 cup of brown rice
- 1 cup of lentils
- 10 cups of water
- 2 tablespoons of chicken base (I use the Better Than Bouillon)
- salt and pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- olive oil
Ready for the easiest directions ever?
- Chop up all of your veggies (I throw everything in the food processor and pulse until I get the desired size)
- Put your pot on the stove, turn on the stove to medium-high, drizzle olive oil in the pot
- Put all the veggies in the pot and sweat them for about 5-6 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Toss your bay leaves and lentils in, stir for about a minute.
- Pour in your water and tablespoons of chicken base. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover for about 45-50 minutes.
- While the soup is cooking, I cook the rice separately according to the package. (This way it wont absorb all my liquid) You don’t have to do it this way, it’s just how I prefer to do it.
- When both the soup and rice are ready I add the rice to the soup and serve.
This serves about 4 people very comfortably! You will most definitely have leftovers for a day or two, but like I said above, pop it in a container and freeze it for when you just don’t have the time or energy to cook. It’s delish!
**I hope you like this easy, affordable recipe! Between April 25 – May 25, 2014 a donation of just $40 will help the Beckstrand Cancer Association feed a family coping with cancer for an entire week–A cause VERY near and dear to my heart! Click HERE to make your donation. Thank you!!
Do you like lentils? Have you ever tried them? What’s you favorite way to make them? I’d love to know, so leave me a comment here or on my Facebook page! For more delicious soup/stew recipes check out my page devoted to them.
Talk to you soon friends, take care!
XO
Do you think I could substitute barley for the brown rice?
I tried this tonight, mine doesn’t look anything like yours. I double checked the amount of water…10 cups as I thought that sounded like a lot of water. While the flavor was good, I just strained the rice and lentils out of all the water. Thinking I should have done the rice along with the lentils not separately. Does it really take 10 cups of water?
Hmmm…Yes 10 cups is what I do. The lentils plump and absorb a lot of the water. It is a soup, not thick like a stew. I’m not sure how yours looked, if you would like to take a picture and send it to me. I’d be happy to look at it 🙂
Just made it myself and I used 7 cups of water and put dry rice into soup. It came out exactly like the picture – more of a stew than a soup. Just a thought.
I don’t have a picture…there was probably a good 4 cups extra liquid, it was very, very soupy. My lentils were old (been in the pantry for months and months) I’ll try again, we do like lentils and am always happy to have another recipe.
Can this be slow cooker adaptable? lol
I’ve never tried cooking this in a crockpot, actually! I’m sure you could, just don’t have any advice on how 🙂 Let me know if you do it, and how it turns out! I’m curious too now!
Trying this now! Hoping it works….was scrambling for a dinner plan with a weak pantry this week :). Thanks for posting!
No problem! Enjoy 🙂
I love lentils and this soup is so yummy and simple. I love the lighting in these shots. So glad to have come across your website.
WOW, this is one of the best soups I have ever made! I followed the comments and used 7 cups of water and added the dry rice into the soup because I wanted more of a stew texture and it turned out exactly how I wanted it! I am a college student so I froze 3 zip-lock bags for eating when I don’t want to cook 🙂 Thank you for this amazing recipe!
That’s awesome Ann! So glad you enjoyed it! Perfect soup for this time of year 🙂
Any ideas of what to replace the chicken base with to make this vegan?
Try replacing chicken base with vegetable stock-yummy!
Do you mean 2 “ribs” or “stalks” of celery?
Two ribs
I made this a couple of times this winter. Super good, I use quantities written. I use white rice and cook right in with lentils. Turns out really thick with the rice, but I love a nice thick soup. Nutritious and economical!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a review Amy! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I made this soup a few nights ago, so quick and easy. My husband and I both loved it. I also had it for lunch the next day, and he had it for dinner the next night. Today I’m making it again, except I’m going to use beef bullion today and throw it all in the crockpot. I can’t wait for dinner! I put all the ingredient into the recipe maker in the MyFitnessPal app and I’m even happier with this recipe when I see the nutritional content. I thought I would share. The only difference is I used 7 cups of water instead of 10, because we like a thicker soup, and I used 2 cups of cooked long grain and wild rice(lower calories) instead of bown rice. Here’s the nutritional content of this soup as I made it, but would be very close to the recipe as written:
Servings: 5.0
Amount Per Serving: 2 Cups
calories 247
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 5 g 7 %
Saturated Fat 1 g 3 %
Monounsaturated Fat 3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0 %
Sodium 2716 mg 113 %
Potassium 656 mg 19 %
Total Carbohydrate 41 g 14 %
Dietary Fiber 8 g 31 %
Sugars 11 g
Protein 8 g 17 %
Vitamin A 122 %
Vitamin C 34 %
Calcium 9 %
Iron 20 %
This is SO AWESOME!! Thank you for breaking that down for my readers! Glad you loved it too! It’s one of our favorites 🙂
You’re welcome…I’m making it again today! I really love this guilt free comfort food!
Ginny,thank you for this breakdown.. I have kidney disease and have to water my sodium, potassium ad phosphorus. Could you figure out the phosphorus for this recipe. or would it be too time consuming?
Made this last night it was so yummy. I love how you just throw the veggies in the food processor. I will be doing this for many other recipes. Have you ever tried Trader Joes steamed lentils? There already cooked! I have to admit I was in a bit of a hurry so I used them and add chicken stock. Saved a bit of time! Anyway thank you for this!
I haven’t tried that but I definitely will! Thanks for the tip 🙂