The Yummiest Lentil Soup. Ever.

This soup is essential for all home chefs to learn how to make. It’s delicious. It’s extremely low cost. It’s filling AND nutritious. What’s not to like?

Let me tell you a little bit about why I like this soup…

I don’t know where you are in the world, but I am in New Hampshire (USA) and it is still cold enough to complain about.

But I try not to complain because it’s annoying. So what I do instead is find ways to make whatever I’m complaining about just a little bit more bearable.

What better way to bear the frigid weather than a hot bowl of red lentil soup to warm up from the inside, out?

I’ve been playing with this recipe for a while now, simply because I found a ton of red lentils for sale like stupid cheap (and they are cheap in general, so I mean, like STUPID cheap). So it’s been a great excuse to learn all about lentils and how to use them.

A Tid-bit About Lentils

In case you don’t know much about lentils, here’s some information about them.

Lentils are a part of the Legume family (which also goes by the name Fabacaea if you are in the botanic community). To the common person, this family is characterized by things like beans and peas.

They typically grow in pods following the flowering and pollination. Each pod carries a number of seeds to maturity. You’ll know that a pod is mature when it’s dried out and the seeds are hardened to the texture of any legume you would buy.

They are the fully mature seed part of the plant called Lens Culinaris.

So go ahead and plant the legumes in your pantry this spring. They might just grow you some more.

BONUS FACT

Green beans and string beans are simply immature legumes and have different tastes and textures based on what variety of legume is harvested prematurely.

The Different Types of Lentils

Tasting

I’m not sure that there are noticeable tasting differences between types of lentils, but I do know that some are faster cooking than others.

I suppose that it doesn’t really matter what shape they are, as long as the meal tastes good. But maybe it affects the texture.

Cooking

From what I can gather, most lentils cook somewhat quickly (10–20 minutes), but green lentils may take a little longer. I personally cannot find a proper and consistent amount of time to cook any kind of lentil. I have also only ever cooked with red and green lentils. While my own experiences are limited, I don’t think there are significantly different cooking times for any lentil.

Shape

There are some lentils that are more rounded and others that split and have a half moon type of shape. They all have differing capacities to hold their shape through cooking.

Split lentils tend to loose their shape more than whole lentils.

Lentils that loose their shape are better for purees, which I happen to prefer anyways. So, yes, we will be pureeing this soup. Sort of.

Can any type of lentil work for this soup recipe?

I’m sure this soup can be made with whatever lentil you have or prefer, and you can always just judge the time of the cooking by tasting a lentil or two every few minutes, starting around 10–15 minutes of their cooking.

You’ll find the recipe over at my blog. Give it a try!

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