Health & Fitness
A Soup Fit for Snow Kings and Queens: Caviar Lentil Soup
Black lentils simmered in chicken broth, bacon, vegetables and a variety of Indian spices. A perfect soup for a blistery, snowy and bright day.
Well, we certainly found Nemo out here in Connecticut. One and a half feet of him.
Snowed in and no where to go, I opened up my cupboards and went shopping for some ingredients for soup on this blistery and bright day. I wound up making this Caviar Lentil Soup.
I have to admit that I really love calling this Caviar Lentil Soup because it sounds so much more extravagant and fanciful than just black lentil soup. Having said that, this is truly a soup that is fit for kings and queens of snowy days.
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I simmered the lentils with onions, celery, carrots, tomatoes and a variety of Indian spices, which were given to me as a birthday present by my sister-in-law. And in honor of the gift giver of the tasty spices, some bacon served as a rich backbone. At the end, some spinach, a little butter and salt went into the mix as well. It was a perfect soup to enjoy after some morning snow galavanting that involved climbing large snow drifts and making snow angels.
I will most certainly be making this again because it was not only incredibly easy to make, it was a delicious, rich, and satisfying main course luncheon soup. The only thing I might do on round #2 is double the aleppo pepper to give it just a little more heat. But I leave that decision to you.
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Caviar Lentil Soup
Author: Julie du Pont
Recipe type: Soup
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour 35 mins
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 slices of bacon, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ¼ tsp to ½ tsp ground aleppo pepper
- ¼ tsp garam masala
- 2 quarts chicken stock
- 1 cup black lentils
- 1 cup chopped plum or grape tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp butter
- 4 cups spinach
- Sea Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat oil in large dutch oven. Add bacon and cook until it begins to brown and render fat, above 5 minutes.
- Add celery, carrots, onions and garlic to the pan and added additional olive oil if needed to avoid burning. Saute for 5-7 minutes until softened.
- Add cumin, coriander, aleppo pepper and garam masala and stir until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
- Add in chicken stock, black lentils, chopped tomatoes and a bay leaf and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to simmer and let cook for an hour to an hour and 10 minutes, until lentils are soft.
- Add in spinach, butter and salt and cook until spinach is wilted and butter is evenly distributed, about 5 minutes.
Julie du Pont is a Darien resident, mom and lawyer. She blogs about food and entertaining at weekend table.