German Lentil Soup With Frankfurters

Submitted by BonnieZ

"I came by this recipe by way of the February 2005 Zaar recipe adoption and decided to adopt it because it sounded just like a soup my father used to bring home from a restaurant he bartended at when I was a child. I was pleasantly surprised that it was the same as I remembered, and other than cutting back on the salt and fat, I made very little adjustment."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• 2 medium onions, peeled & chopped
• 2 cups lentils, sorted and rinsed
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 medium carrots, scraped and diced
• 1⁄2 - 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1⁄4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 lb frankfurter, sliced in half inch rounds
• 8 cups water
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar

directions

1. Saute onions, garlic, carrots, and celery in heated oil in a large kettle for 5 minutes.
2. Add water, lentils, bay leaf, salt, and pepper.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Lower heat and cook slowly, covered, about 30 minutes, until lentils are just tender.
5. Add frankfurters and cook another 10 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar.
7. Remove and discard bay leaf.

Reviews

[Gina Lukhart]

Lentilsoup is one of my favorite dishes and my Mom made it quite often because it was an inexpensive way to feed a whole family. In Germany we do not use the celery or the carrots in Lentilsoup, but I actually like that idea, gives it an extra little flavor. And yes we often use ham or even brown some bacon as added flavor. The way I make it is, I cut about a quarter pound of bacon into strips, brown these, the put in one chopped onion and let it brown slightly until golden. I add water and the desired amount of lentils. Let it cook for about an hour. In a seperate saucepan I melt 3 tbs margarine and put in 3 tbs of flour, then I use about 3 tbs of vinegar take some of the already made lentil soup and mix it up good so you dont get lumps, transfer to lentil soup and stir well, let cook an additional half hour. Cut up some Frankfurters heat, and serve over Spaetzle. Very famous dish in every Gasthaus in Germany.

 

[tigerhearted]

My fiance was sick today, and I'm not feeling so hot either; we had some lentils I've been wanting to use so I went looking for a lentil soup recipe that needed similar ingredients we had in the house already. This recipe came the closest, so I decided to give it a shot. :) So these are the adjustments I made based on what we had: *Hot dogs had gone bad, so I chopped up what canadian bacon we had in the fridge -- about 7-8 oz worth. *I added red potatoes as someone above suggested, but I used 3 instead of 2 because we love our potatoes. ;) *No celery, which I'm not a fan of to begin with so probably would have omitted anyway. *I had about a third of a large purple onion, and that seemed to be enough onion for us. *No garlic cloves! Very sad. I used about 2.5 TB of garlic powder instead. *Substituted EVOO for Canola Oil. *I used a can of Low Sodium beef broth, which came out to 2 cups worth of liquid, and then 6 cups of water. I only used about 1/2 tsp of salt since the broth did have some sodium in it. *I used a couple splashes of red wine while sauteeing because I love the smell and flavor. :3 *Once I put the 2 cups of lentils in the pot, it didn't seem like it would come out thick/hearty enough for my tastes (I love my soups hearty and thick!), so I added an additional 3rd cup of lentils. *Added a dash of ground thyme and ground white pepper, and another splash of red wine towards the end, because the broth was tasting a bit bland (probably due to using canadian bacon instead of franks). *Skipped the vinegar altogether because I'm not a fan of vinegar flavor. This smelled fabulous while it was cooking! We couldn't wait to dig in, and it turned out really hearty and tasty. :) Definitely will be making it again. It turned out a *little* too thick from the extra lentils, so next time I'll only add an extra 1/2 cup.

 

[bmnchef]

This was a lovely and easy recipe! I liked it, and I brought a bowl to a friend who also loved it. I didn't do much in terms of modifications ... I threw in some sweet-and-sour sauce packets from a Chinese restaurant, and felt it didn't need any cider vinegar. This is a great winter comfort food!!

 

[BarryID]

I made one change and loved this soup. Served it tonight with a salad and everyone was pleased. The change was to replace 2 of the cups of water with 2 cups of Swanson's 99% fat free beef soup. Due to the sodium level in the soup, I did not add additional salt.

 

[just judy]

I have not tried this yet, but I have been trying to find a reicpie for lentil soup (my mom is german) and this is the only one that sounded anything like what she made. She never had carrots in hers (or tomatoe or potatoes which I notice in most recipies) though and hers had a sweet tang to it so I think I will try this without the carrots and add a little sugar-I wonder if it matters when you would add that?????? Thanks for the recipie!