Jewish Red Lentil Soup Recipe - Vegetarian Soup

I became interested in red lentil soup when Dr. Perricone talked about this food on Oprah’s show. He listed lentils as #4 on his list of SuperFoods and said that red lentils were more nutritious than the other lentils. They are a great source of protein, high in fiber and antioxidants, and low in fat. He suggests not cooking lentils with salt because it may toughen them, but I did not find this to be true because the red lentils actually break down into mush like peas.

From Egypt to Jerusalem across the waters to the United States and Canada, Egyptians, Israelis and Americans love this vegetarian soup. One could call it a “Middle Eastern Peace Dish!!” Muslims eat it during Ramadan after their fast. Shepardic Jews in Israel enjoy the flavors, and Vegans in the U.S. love it because the soup can be made with vegetable broth.

There are many variations to this recipe: Baghdadi Jews from India use a teaspoon of  turmeric plus two dried chopped chilies or a healthy pinch of cayenne pepper. In Egypt some people serve the soup with lime wedges and chopped cilantro. And Syrians spice their soup with cumin, garlic and garnish it with fresh lemon wedges.

There is a legend that Moses gave his people lentils to help them survive their long exodus from Egypt.

Ingredients
1 large onion, coarse or finely chopped
2 sticks celery cut in small pieces
1 cup carrots cut in small slices
2 cups red lentils - you can use the whole or split
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon pepper depending how spicy you like your soup
9 1/2 cups meat, chicken or vegetable broth - If you use water then add one bullion cube per cup. (Most boullion has MSG in it. ) See comment below.

1 teaspoon turmeric or cumin
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Directions
In a soup pot put the onion, celery, carrots, lentils, liquid, salt and pepper.
Simmer 1/2 hour, or until the lentils are very soft.
Add water if you see that the soup needs thinning.

Stir in turmeric or cumin, lemon juice after 20 minutes. Add seasoning to taste.

Place the olive oil on the table so that people can drizzle some on their soup.
Serves 6 to 8 people

This soup was absolutely delicious and we so enjoyed it while hibernating from Chicagoland’s cold winter day of 12 degrees, winds at 10-20 miles per hour! And showers and snow expected tonight. This has been an extremely cold, snowy winter. Great days for Jewish red lentil soup!

For more ancient Jewish recipes see our ebook, From Bubbie’s Kitchen.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 11:37 pm and is filed under soup recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.