How I made LENTIL SOUP taste 10x BETTER

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Get the printable recipe here! https://rainbowplantlife.com/lentil-soup/

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🔑 KEY MOMENTS
00:00 Introduction
00:17 Prep the aromatics
02:02 Cook the soup
06:25 Prep the toppings
08:29 Putting it all together

– Today I’m gonna show you how to make Mediterranean lentil soup, which is one of my favorite
cold weather recipes. It’s budget-friendly, nutritious. It comes together in one pot, but the flavor is ridiculously good. And I’m gonna walk you through
the tips and tricks I use to make this lentil
soup far from ordinary. So let’s get into it. We’re starting off with some
familiar soup characters. So go ahead and start by
dicing one large yellow onion. This is a very perfect looking onion. Almost too perfect. I’m a bit suspicious. (upbeat music) And I’ll also dice up three medium carrots and I never bother peeling them ’cause the peel is nutritious,
it’s delicious, but I do wash and scrub them really
well before using them. And finally, chop six garlic cloves. (upbeat music) We’ve got our nice big pile of garlic. I do love my garlic. All right, so we have our
standard soup aromatics prepped, but my first tip is if you
want an actually interesting lentil soup that’s not ordinary,
add a fun flavor twist. Today we’re going in a
Mediterranean direction. So I’ve got some ground
coriander for a citrusy warmth and some Aleppo pepper
for a fruity smoky heat. And to add to this flavor profile, we’re gonna add some preserved lemon peel. Preserved lemons are so fun. They’re essentially lemons that have been fermented in
their own juices and salt. And they’re gonna add a
super lemony, complex, tangy, salty flavor to the soup that
really takes it over the top. For this recipe, we’re
just using the peel. And finely chop up the peel until you get two tablespoons worth. You can find preserved lemons at Middle Eastern grocery stores and some well-stocked supermarkets. You can also make them at home. I’ve got a whole video on how to do that. If you can’t find them though,
you can use some lemon zest for a different flavor profile. And I’ve got instructions
in the written recipe. That is all the prep, very quick. So let’s get started on our soup. (upbeat music) Grab a Dutch oven or a soup pot and get it over a medium high heat. Add in two tablespoons of
extra virgin olive oil. Let that heat up, add those onions, a little bit of salt. And this brings me to my next tip for a really great lentil soup or really good soup in general, wait until your onions brown. Don’t just sweat them for like four or five minutes, especially in a soup where you’re using pantry
budget friendly ingredients. Taking the time to brown
your onions really, really makes a difference
in terms of the flavor. It’s more complex, you can
taste the difference at the end. So that should take at least 10 minutes, probably closer to 15 minutes. And yes, it does take a little bit longer, but you can use that time to multitask. Normally when I make this at
home while the onions cook, I chop up the garlic and the carrots and the preserved lemon, so you’re not really losing that much time. You’ll notice I haven’t
added the carrots yet, and that’s because I wanna give the onions enough surface area so
they can really brown. If the onions start to
brown unevenly at any point, just add a splash of water, that’s gonna bring down the temperature of everything in the pan, so
the onions cook more evenly. Our onions are looking
lovely, super golden brown. So we can add our carrots,
garlic and preserved lemon now. Now be sure to stir pretty
frequently at this point so the garlic doesn’t burn. You’re looking for the carrots
to just start to soften. That should take about five minutes. (upbeat music) It’s time for the spices. Be sure to stir almost constantly
so the spices don’t burn. It should take just 30 seconds. If you’ve got a lot of brown
bits on the bottom of the pot, go ahead and add a splash of your vegetable broth
to deglaze everything. And that leads me to my next tip For a really good lentil soup. Use a vegetable broth that you
actually like the taste of. If I were to have a teaspoon of this and just like have it as
a sip, it’d be something I dunno if I’d enjoy drinking
it, but it tastes nice. If you wanna take the soup over the top, obviously you can make
your own vegetable broth if you have the time,
or you can use something like a better than bouillon base, which is gonna add a super
concentrated salty umami punch. I’m also gonna pour in one cup of water. If you have extra vegetable broth on hand, you can totally use that. But most cartons come in four cups, and we need five cups total of liquid. Now for our lentils, I’ve got one cup of standard green lentils. You can find these at pretty
much any grocery store, can also use brown lentils if you prefer. Lots of black pepper. And before we bring this to a boil, we have one final ingredient
to add to the soup. A bouquet garni, it’s a fancy French word,
but it’s super simple. It’s just a bundle of herbs. And to make it, I just took
a piece of kitchen twine and piled on two bay leaves, plus about 10 fresh thyme sprigs. And I love this technique
for soups so much because you just stick it in the soup. You don’t need to chop up the herbs and it gently infuses the entire soup with the earthy woodsy
aromas of the herbs. And the twine prevents you from having to fish out a bunch of
different herb leaves. You just pick out the
one bundle and that’s it. Bring the soup to a boil and then you can reduce
the heat, cover it, and we’ll simmer it for 20 minutes. Actually, I’m gonna have
this simmer on my main stove so I can create more space here. While the soup simmers,
I have a few more tricks to take this recipe over the top. And the first one is to
always serve your soup with some good crusty bread. Just makes it a more enjoyable experience and it makes it a complete meal. And that brings me to the sponsor of today’s video, Wildgrain. I am obsessed with Wildgrain. They are the first baked
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classic sourdough loaf to go alongside our lentil soup. And I have to say, being able
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and yes, they are amazing. We still have a bit of time before the soup is ready so
we can work on our toppings, which are really easy, yet fun, and they definitely elevate the soup. When you’re making a fairly simple and healthy soup like we are today, I think it’s important to
add something a little fun and indulgent so it becomes something you actually look forward to eating. So the first thing we’re gonna
make is a low fuss herb oil herb topping situation. So you’re gonna use a
cup of fresh herb leaves. I really like using fresh basil
with a little bit of dill, but if all you have at
home is flat leaf parsley, that works too. For the dill, I’m just
gonna finely chop that up. And for the basil, I like
to layer the leaves on top of one another, roll them up like a cigar, and then do a Chiffonade. And then just rotate the pile of herbs and chop it a few more times. We’ll zest one medium lemon
right into our herb mixture. And now we’re gonna drizzle in
some extra virgin olive oil, about two tablespoons. And this is gonna be a finishing oil. So you’ll taste the oil. So you wanna use your good stuff, the stuff you love the most, and a pinch or two of flaky sea salt
just to make everything pop. I like to add just a little more oil to make it a looser kinda
spoonable consistency. But if you don’t wanna add
more, that’s totally fine. The herbs and the lemon are
gonna add a lot of brightness and freshness and the
olive oil, it’s gonna add that lovely luxurious
mouthfeel to our soup. Next up, we’re gonna make
the fastest yogurt sauce to go on top of our soup. It’s technically optional, but
it takes one minute to make and it makes the soup even more special. All you need is about a half
cup of a plain flavored yogurt. These are my two go-to
brands that are plant-based and I love so much. Just squeeze in a little
bit of lemon juice. And I’m doing it directly
in the containers so we don’t have an extra dish to wash, some black pepper and a touch of salt. (upbeat music) Maybe I should have just used a bowl. It’s kind of like topping your chili with some sour cream except
with a Mediterranean twist. It’s gonna add a cooling
element, some tanginess, and some great texture. The soup should be done
simmering any minute now, but first we have to check on our bread. Oh yeah, look at that. It needs to cool for a bit,
so I can’t dig in just yet, but I’m very excited. The lentils are tender, so I’m gonna scoop out that bouquet garni. A lot of lentil soups are kind of lacking in that savory umami quality unless you add meat or mushrooms. So now I like to add in two
tablespoons of nutritional yeast and it just adds a slight
savoriness without any extra work. And let that gently
simmer for a minute or two and pretty much any soup will
benefit from a little acidity at the end to awaken all the flavors. So we’re gonna go in with a
big squeeze of lemon juice. Oh, can’t forget a slice of
our fresh baked sourdough. Still warm. I have to have a bite
even before the soup. I’m so excited. It’s fluffy, but perfectly
chewy and crispy. It’s got this amazing tang and
it’s such a great cheat code because you can just have
it whenever you want it. (upbeat music) Can’t forget our toppings,
our delicious herb oil. (upbeat music) And a dollop of our yogurt sauce. Our bread. This looks so good. (upbeat music) It’s bright and lemony, but still has that nice
indulgence from the toppings. I think y’all will love
it as much as I do. You can get the full
printable recipe linked in the description box below,
or you can scan this QR code. Thanks so much for watching, bye.