Pressure Cooker Lentil Soup

Podkayne's Note:

This is a delicious, easy, and, most importantly, FAST way to make a hearty, nutritious, stick-to-ribs soup. As with most bean soups, a good broth is they key to flavor, so use your own homemade, or a good quality brand that is sold a carton, not canned! I like Pacific Foods mushroom broth for a good, meaty flavor. If you like spinach and appreciate an extra kick of iron, pick up a bag of prewashed baby spinach, or else buy regular spinach and clean and stem it while the soup cooks.

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup dry lentils, rinsed and picked
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 ounces fresh spinach (optional)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. In your pressure cooker, sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent.
2. Add the carrots and celery and saute for a minute or two.
3. Add the ground cumin and stir well.
4. Add the vegetable broth, lentils, and bay leaves, close the pressure cooker, and bring up to pressure.
5. Cook for 20 minutes.
6. Open the pressure cooker via the quick release method (see your cooker's owner's manual!) or let the pressure come down on its own.
7. Remove the bay leaves.
8. If desired, stir in the spinach, and stir until it wilts. (Additional heat is not necessary.).
9. Season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Reviews

[LikesToCookMike]

I really like this recipe, and it goes very well with buttered bread on a cold day.
After sauteing the onions and garlic, I dumped them into a bowl and proceeded with the recipe. I have a Fagor pressure cooker and I found that 25 minutes almost got the lentils soft enough for me. At that point, I did a quick pressure release, did a lentil check, added the onions and garlic back in with a little water, then brought the soup back up to pressure for ~3 minutes. It turned out really well, where the onions weren't mush and the lentils were soft. I would also recommend watching the salt, because of the sodium in the vegetable broth and I used salted butter on my bread, which was plenty for me.

[GardenKat]

This was delicious! Before closing up the pot, I added some chopped fresh tomatoes, 2x the cumin, and salt. I added the spinach after I took off the lid and added some letover cooked basmati rice. Really yummy. Thank you for sharing this super easy, quick and delicious recipe.

[tsacerich_10777541]

Everyone in my family is a vegetarian except me and we all love this recipe. Very flavorful and easy to make.