Hearty Lentil Soup

Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen Cookbook, p. 52

1 medium onion

2 garlic cloves

2 medium celery stalks

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 15-ounce can ready-cut tomatoes

½ teaspoon dried oregano

Dash black pepper

1 cup dried lentils

2 10 ½-ounce cans condensed chicken broth + 1 ½ cans water (or 1 vegetable bouillon cube + 4 cups water)

Grated Parmesan cheese

Peel the onion and cut it into ½-inch pieces. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Wash the celery stalks, trim and discard the ends and cut the stalks into ¼-inch slices.

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and celery and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften. 

Solid beginnings!

Add the tomatoes and their liquid, oregano, black pepper, lentils, chicken broth (or vegetable cube) and water.

Pretty development.

Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Then turn down the heat to low and cook, covered, for 20 minutes. Test lentils to see if they’re soft by tasting one. Undercooked lentils are like pebbles. If the lentils are too hard, cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.

When the soup is ready, it will be very thick. However, if it’s too thick, add ½ to 1 cup more water. Ladle into bowls, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve.

(I forgot the Parmesan.)

My Rating: 3/5 "This has a lot of pleasant Italian undertones. It doesn't have much pizzazz, though, in the final product. It's boiled veggies in broth with some lentils. But you can congratulate yourself on eating healthy if you make this, and I suppose sometimes we just need that mental boost."