Lentil and Vegetable Soup
Fear not, soup season will soon be behind us and we can move onto enjoying fresh salads, barbecue delights, and so much fruit our fingers are constantly sticky.
That last one may just be my household. Over the last few years my husband has been fullfilling his dream of having an orchard by planting as many fruit trees as our yard will allow (while still alloting some space to the kids and dog. We have an apricot tree, a peach tree, a nectarine tree, a gala apple tree, a honey crisp apple tree, a hardy fig tree, and two pear trees which I honestly don’t know the types of. Come July, we are rolling in fruit and it is glorious.
But until then and those gloriously warm summer days, let’s have another bowl of soup.
This lentil soup is super speedy (and made even more so if you’re using an Instant Pot, although it’s not necessary). It is tangy and light and packed full of vegetables and toothsome lentils. I’m a sucker for the chewy softness of lentils and beans. It’s absolutely perfect for these spring days when we want the comfort of warm soup but crave the feeling of lightness to match the mood of the season.
Let’s get to it.
Lentil and Vegetable Soup Serves 6
1 onion, finely diced
1 tbsp. olive oil
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 bell pepper, finely diced
3 stalks of celery, finely diced
3 carrots, finely diced
2 small zucchini, finely diced
3 cups dark leafy greens, finely sliced (I used gai lan [a dark Asian green], but kale, swiss chard, or beet greens would all work)
8 golf ball-sized tomatoes, diced
1 cup lentils
5 cups of water (or broth)
Salt and pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1.5 tsp cumin
Juice of half a lemon
Directions
1. In your Instant Pot on medium sauté, add the onion and oil and cook until starting to brown.
2. Add in the garlic and cook for another minute before adding in the bell pepper. Cook for another few minutes before adding the celery. Again, cook.*
3. Then the carrots, zucchini, and greens. Cook for 5 or so minutes, stirring quite often. Add the tomatoes, scraping the bottom to unstick any brown bits.
4. Add in the lentils, water, and spices.
5. Place the lid on (check that it’s sealed) and set for manual high pressure for 12 minutes.
6. When finished, quick release if desired. Add the lemon juice and mix it in.
7. Enjoy with good bread while discussing your dream garden.
Alternative cooking method: This can also easily be cooked in a normal pot with a tight-fitting lid. Do everything the same with the heat on medium, and once you add the water, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, add a lid and cook the soup for 20-25 minutes until the lentils are cooked through.
*There is a beautiful rhythm to this soup. As each of the previous vegetables added are cooking, cut up your next one. In the space of time it takes to prepare that vegetable, the previous one will have had its few minutes to cook, making it time to add the one you just prepared. Add the onion, cut the garlic. Add garlic, cut the pepper. Add the pepper, cut the celery. And so on. That truly makes it a speedy soup.
Why cook the veggies at all? It’s all about that brown flavour. It just adds depth to this very veggies forward dish. You can skip the browning but then you skip on flavour. Your call.