Lentil Minestrone With Greens
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1large onion, chopped
- 1large carrot, chopped
- 4garlic cloves, minced
- Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste
- 1(14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes, with liquid
- 1pound lentils (brown or beluga), washed and picked over
- 2½quarts water
- A bouquet garni made with a bay leaf, 2 sprigs each thyme and parsley, and a Parmesan rind
- ½pound Swiss chard, mustard greens or kale, stemmed, washed in two changes of water, and roughly chopped (about 6 cups)
- Freshly ground pepper
- ½cup elbow macaroni or other soup pasta (optional)
- Freshly grated Parmesan for serving
For the Lentil Minestrone With Greens
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
289 calories; 5 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 48 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 17 grams protein; 1099 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
For the Lentil Minestrone With Greens
- Step 1
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat, and add the onion and carrot. Cook, stirring, until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add half the garlic and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir together for a minute, just until the garlic is fragrant, and add the tomatoes and their liquid. Turn up the heat slightly and cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes have cooked down and smell fragrant, about 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Stir in the lentils, water and bouquet garni, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer 30 minutes. Add the remaining garlic, salt to taste and add the greens. Continue to simmer, covered, for another 15 minutes. Add freshly ground pepper, taste and adjust seasoning. Stir in the pasta, and continue to simmer until the pasta is tender, five to 10 minutes. Remove the bouquet garni and serve, passing grated Parmesan at the table.
- Advance preparation: The soup can be made up to a day or two ahead of time, but do not add the pasta until you are ready to serve. Reheat and add as directed.A note about salt: From now on, I will indicate a preference for kosher salt in my recipes. Because of its crystalline structure, kosher salt is not as salty as fine sea salt.
Private Notes
Comments
I make this plant based without oil, salt, or Parmesan. I usually use frozen chopped spinach instead of fresh greens. This is a great basic recipe. Sometimes I add a chopped zucchini or some mushrooms! You can grate walnuts or cashews over the top of the soup to look like Parmesan without the animal dairy.
This soup is very good and I have made it twice now. I find it's a good soup to make for feeding a crowd and is better the second day. This time I used chicken broth, beluga lentils, and beet greens from the garden. The chicken broth and a generous parm rind provide a richer broth, and appease the meat eaters in the family. I've made this vegetarian as well with brown lentils and spinach and served it the night before Thanksgiving to rave reviews.
soup is so forgiving.
Adjustments, adjustments and it comes out great!
Didn't add pasta. Used fresh Roma tomatoes. Greens and herbs on hand.
The homemade quality with pretty good ingredients is always a winner.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Added a 2nd carrot, celery, cut up a handful of green beans. Used escarole, its my go to green. And I did add the pasta at the end. Tubetti Rigati. More than called for. Did not have fresh herbs. Pummeled various Italian herbs and tossed in w vegetable stock which I used instead of water. Will definitely make again.
1/2 pound of lentils
Made this yesterday- it came out delicious! I used frozen spinach as suggested by one of the recent comments because the kale at the grocery store was too expensive the other day. I also added 2 sage leaves to the bouquet garni just because I have sage in my herb garden. I could not find a Parmesan rind so I cut off a hunk of hard Parmesan cheese and used that in the garni and it worked fine. I will definitely be making this healthy soup again.
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