Let's give the lentil soup a twist! Vegan ragout, but also velvety, ethnic dish and soup. Which one inspires you the most?
There lentil soup is a very versatile dish, do you know? It can be done all year round in many different ways.
Lentil soup: the classic recipe
Meanwhile, decide whether to buy lentils which require soaking for a few hours or peeled lentils, usually ready to cook.
Then prepare a small sautéed with celery, carrot, onion, a clove of garlic and extra virgin olive oil and once the vegetables are gently browned, add the lentils, well drained if they have been soaked, or simply rinsed.
Let them go for a couple of minutes to flavor them and then add as much vegetable broth or water as enough to cover them with a finger, a bay leaf, a couple of cherry tomatoes, if you want to add a touch of color and acidity, and a sprig of rosemary.
Cook for about 15-20 minutes and add salt only at the end.
Don't add the vegetable cube, please!
Pour from time to time water or broth if you notice that the lentils are absorbing too much liquid.
You can cook a little while leaving them crunchy, or continue cooking until they become one cream. To you the choice!
Here are some interesting variations of the basic recipe.
Lentil soup with spices
Add some curry and a grated fresh ginger to your lentil soup to give it that slightly ethnic taste that makes the difference. A little bit of coriander freshly chopped with a knife would add further aroma and flavor, but not everyone likes it!
With coconut milk
This variant is very tasty and particularly creamy thanks to the presence of coconut milk which, be careful, is not the liquid one found on the plant milk shelf, but is the much denser and tastier one packaged in can.
Add the coconut milk almost at the end of cooking to make the soup more enveloping.
With black cabbage
This recipe is perfect in the fall and winter when I give the black cabbage it's in season and it's nice and crunchy.
Add it to the soup halfway through cooking, cut into thin strips, or bake only the tender part of the leaves in the oven to obtain chips to accompany the soup.
With mushrooms
Another very tasty idea is the combination with mushrooms.
If you want a very tasty dish, use the porcini mushrooms, otherwise they'll be fine too champignon and chanterelles.
Prepare a small pan with carola, chopped onion and garlic and then add the mushrooms. Roll them together with the lentils for a couple of minutes and then add the broth and bring to a boil.
Lentil soup with herb croutons
Legume soups with croutons are a classic, but they are better if i croutons are homemade and scented with aromatic herbs.
Cut and cubes some stale bread and brown it in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, oregano and chopped parsley.
If you like, add some garlic to the pan.
Vegan ragout
You can prepare a ragout without meat? Yes, with lentils.
Cook them as per the basic recipe, adding some tomato puree during cooking and let them tighten well in order to obtain a sort of real sauce for the pasta.
The ideal combination is with durum or whole wheat semolina pasta.
Lentil soup and broken pasta
This variant is very popular with children because it is simple and light.
Cook the lentil soup by adding more water than expected and, almost at the end of cooking, add some broken spaghetti or tubes and cook for the cooking time of the pasta, about 8-10 minutes.
Serve with plenty of Parmesan.
With the pumpkin and in the pumpkin
You can also add cubes of lentils to the lentil soup pumpkin, or during cooking, or separately after having cooked the pumpkin in the oven with garlic, oil, bay leaf and rosemary.
You can then serve the soup inside small empty pumpkins if you want to impress your guests.
Lentils cream
Obviously, once the lentil soup is ready, you can serve it more elegantly in the form of velvety.
Then blend it by adding two tablespoons of fresh cream and serve it with raw oil or sour cream and decorate with chives or other aromatic herbs.
This recipe has already been read 3433 times!