When I finally purchased my iphone, I felt, and I say this without irony, that I had acquired a new best friend. And while that may reflect a bit (just a bit) on my current life situation, I think many of us have a long history of deep love and admiration for our tools. Good design cannot be underrated in its affect on quality of life. I touch, countless times, that little iphone and enjoy in the doing the task much more than I might.
All this is to say that the immersion blender makes the lentil soup and most soups for that matter. Ah, and the joy of the blend…
However, needing or having to buy an immersion blender flies in the face of the concept for Dude Fude and the ease of making. I assume most people do not, and should not, have this tool.
AND you can wait for your lentil soup to cool and dump it into your regular blender (in stages) or you can eat lentil soup unblended, in which case chop everything very small.
In any case, Lentil soup is easy and delicious. I do these steps fairly casually with imperfect measurements and it always works.
In a big pot, saute 1 large onion with chopped fresh parsley and thyme (or dried if you don’t have fresh) in olive oil or butter.
After about 7 minutes (stirring occasionally), add 1 or 2 chopped carrot (s) and 1 chopped stalk of celery (chop finely if you won’t be blending), and 3 cloves of garlic.
Add 15 oz (1 can of diced tomatoes)
Cook for another 5 or so minutes, scrap up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan
Add 5 cups of water (or chicken broth) and 1 1/2 cups of French (smaller and browner) lentils (wash and check for stones), 1 teaspoon of salt, a couple of bay leaves if you have them.
Cover partially and let cook for 30-35 minutes, until lentils are cooked.
If you’ve got the immersion blender, you can just put that in the hot soup blend (if you are using your regular blender, you’ll need to let the soup cool. I let mine cool, only barely, but hot soup can jump up, so be careful.
Then add more salt to taste and pepper. You can add a 1 tablespoon of sherry (or red wine) vinegar and 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard for kick (although often I leave this last step out.
I freeze what I don’t eat in small batches, because it reheats beautifully.
Enjoy!
zoe finkel 