Spinach, Lemon and Lentil Soup

Submitted by Ennoia

"This recipe was shared with me by my one of my dearest friends. My husband & I have duplicated the recipe many times since our first tasting and it's received many great reviews! This recipe can be altered for a vegetarian's meal."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 45mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 16

ingredients

• 14.79 ml olive oil
• 3 leeks, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 sprig fresh thyme
• 4 sprig fresh oregano
• 946.36 ml chicken stock (you can substitute vegetable stock here to make this dish vegetarian.)
• 1892.72 ml water
• 350 g green lentils (these must be soaked for two hours before using them in the recipe, we've also used a mixture of RED)
• 500 g spinach, trimmed & chopped (English)
• 78.78 ml lemon juice
• lemon wedge (for garnish)
• sour cream (for garnish)

directions

1. Prepare your ingredients.
2. Heat a large stock pot on Medium Heat; add the tablespoon of olive oil.
3. When the oil is hot add the leeks and garlic to be sauteed.
4. Saute them until the leeks are clear.
5. Turn down the heat to low-- very low.
6. Add the chicken stock and water to the pot. Add the potatoes, bay leaves, thyme and oregano. Let the soup simmer on low heat for about an hour or so (or until the potatoes are cooked to your liking).
7. Add the lentils at this point; continue simmering for 10 minutes.
8. Just before you are about to serve dinner, add in the spinach and lemon juice.
9. The longer the spinach is in the soup, the more it will be wilted.
10. It is best added to the soup minutes before you are about to serve it.
11. Garnish the soup with a lemon wedge and a dollop of sour cream.
12. **This soup could also easily be prepared in a crock pot!
13. **This recipe also doubles well!

Reviews

[Inspiritual]

The one thing i will stress when making this is have a LARGE stock pot, this makes so much soup i had to split the broth before adding the lentils or things would have overflowed. Even though I soaked my lentils overnight, it took more then 10 minutes for them to be soft, so i would definitely cook them longer then that. Those two technicalities aside, I would agree with the other reviewers, this is a hearty soup with great flavor. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Outta Here]

This soup is very hearty and tasty. I cut the recipe in half. From past experience, I knew the lentils I use would not cook in 10 minutes, so I reversed the order of lentils and potato. I cooked the lentils 1 hour and THEN added the potatoes for about 15 minutes. I think the potatoes cooked for an hour would have dissolved :) The lemon juice really adds some zing to the flavor. I served with a dollop of Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Made for Fall 2011 PAC game.

 

[DragonShoes]

Well, I think this needs a 6 star. I just made it for dinner since I had everything on hand but the bay leaf so I tossed my beloved cilantro in the pot. I cut the water by one cup. I used veggie broth being I'm a vegetarian and tossed one diced potato in too. Thank you for a hearty soup and I will be taking some for lunch tomorrow.

 

[Dragoness]

I had to make this as soon as I saw it. It tasted great. I would have rated it higher but, 4 cups stock and 8 cups water make way more than four servings! Since I have a 3.5quart crock pot, I used 4 cups stock and three cups water. With all the other ingredients that was one full crock pot! I also added a stalk of lemon grass for more lemon flavour. When I served the soup I sprinkled some feta on top, it seemed more complete that way. Keep up the great recipes!