Red Lentil Soup

First of all: Sorry for the lack of updates! Because of my abysmal lack of updating I'm sharing with you my super yummy Red Lentil Soup! It's easy, yummy, and even your kids won't know that what they're eating is healthy for them!

This recipe is the perfect thing to eat in the winter and fall. Heck, it's yummy in the spring and summer too! Eat this whenever you want! It's packed full of healthy things like...er...lentils! And tomatoes and garlic! It's all incredibly easy to make! And I'm all about easy! As everyone around me knows--I'm terrible at math. Fifth graders could outsmart me on any math quiz ever. So this recipe is filled with a lot of easy numbers so that you don't have to think about how much you need. Because really, who has time for that!?

This soup (if you're a super fast chopper like me) takes about 10 minutes to prep. 15 if you're a slow chopper. Or if you're one of those lucky people who has a fancy-shmancy food processor that chops things easily for you, it'll probably only take 3 minutes. Lucky, lucky people. So! Now that you know how easy this is, lets get started!

First, our cast of characters!

Here we have lentils, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, can of crushed tomatoes, olive oil, water, salt and pepper

These are all healthy things eh!? And the fun part is, the kids will never know! Now come's the hardest part in this entire thing! First chop up one onion and 9 cloves of garlic (you heard me! Don't fear the garlic, you'll need it, trust me!) like this:

chop chop chop! 

Then dice up your carrots and celery. 1 cup each. See? easy numbers. I cut the larger chunks of carrot up again, because I like smaller prices. Makes it easier to hide it from people who hate carrots.

I love celery. I'd eat it morning, noon, and night

Chopped up carrots. I swear they actually improved my eye sight as a kid!

Now that you've don that, its time to get started! Easy right!?  Now heat up two tablespoons of olive oil! I added butter because...well...butter is what makes cooking wonderful! I added 2 tablespoons. Personally, I also use butter like this so that the onions don't get browned. I swear that's my reason. Totally true. Totally. Soften your onions and garlic!

Next, you're going to add in 1 to 2 tablespoons of Herbs de Provence (if you don't have that, just add in thyme and oregano, 1/2 a tablespoon each to equal 1 tablespoon). You do this so that they flavor comes out stronger than just throwing it into water and hoping for the best. 

After a couple of minutes throw in the carrots and celery for a couple of minutes. I say throw. I mean gently add them. No need to miss carrots or celery. You want to get the most nutrition for your chopping! 

After this, you're going to add in your lentils. You do this so that the nutty flavor of the red lentils can come out before you douse them in water. (trust me, use red. ONLY RED. I tried yellow AND green, both with less than 'yummy'. The flavors are surprisingly different.) 

THESE ARE RED LENTILS. SEE THEM. LEARN THEM. LOVE THEM.

Look at how good that looks! I bet you can smell it through your screen! 

You're going to now add water! LOTS of water. Like..to the point that you're looking at me like I'm a crazy lady. I thought I was crazy too. But don't worry, I'm not! Lentil absorb a lot of water. I used 7 in total. But start with four. You will notice almost immediately that the lentils will soak up that water and you'll be scrambling for more within three minutes. Then you're going to add in pretty much the whole can of crushed tomatoes. You can use only half if you want. But who wants to measure!? That's too much math!

Next add in a little salt and pepper (the rest can be to taste after you put them in bowls. But this is mainly my own problem. I like things on the salty side. My family? Not so much. But for sure don't undersalt. That's the WORST taste in the world.) and let it cook for half an hour! When half an hour is almost up, take a bunch of spinach and mince it! 

The soup should be done by now! So salt and pepper to taste, then put into bowls. Add in minced spinach as desired. Then add in a spoonful of Balsamic Vinegar.This brings the dish together sooooo perfectly!That's it! You're done!

 Other than to eat it and fend off people to horde the rest for yourself when they beg you for more! Also, as a note, this soup can be frozen and used months later! It thaws wonderfully! Enjoy! 

Red Lentil Soup

1 onion

1 cup lentils

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped celery 

9 cloves of garlic 

2 tables olive oil

1 can crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoons butter (optional) 

2 Tablespoons Herbs de Provence

Salt/Pepper to taste

Balsamic Vinegar 

Spinach 

directions: 

Chop up the onion, carrots, and celery. Mince the garlic. In a large (and I mean large!) pot heat up the olive oil and butter. Throw in onion and garlics and soften slightly. Add in carrots and celery for a few minutes, then add in the cup of lentils to toast them a little. let them toast (but stir frequently) for about two minutes. Then add in four cups of water. This will absorb quickly, so you'll keep adding water. I used 7 and a half by the end! 

Add in the can of crushed tomatoes, a few dashes of salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Then lower the heat and let simmer for half an hour. Once the half an hour is up mince (or chop) baby spinach. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste. Put into soup bowls and toss in spinach. Then add in a spoonful (or a little more if you want) of balsamic vinegar. Freeze if you have leftovers (this recipe makes a LOT. But its so good, don't be surprised if you don't have enough to freeze!).  

Cool Cucumber Soup

 I'm sure somewhere in Russia people are cursing California for having all the sun and year round heat. But you know what, I would gladly trade them some rain and cold for sunshine! If only you could trade light! We're in the thick of a hot summer here in Southern California (that's SoCal to us locals), and short of taking your skin off there's not much you can do if you don't have an air conditioner in your house that's working. Stupid air conditioning! So I have this soup instead. Its yummy  (a vegetable no less!), light, and COLD. Cold is the important word in there folks. Say it with me. Cooooooold. I feel cool already!

 The soup is ridiculously easy to make! So easy your 5 year old could probably make it without your help! That's right, if you can get free labor to save you from having to become even hotter than you already are, then do it! Just remind them how many hours it took to birth them and they should stop complaining. Or you know, bribe them with Popsicles. I made this soup late at night, and even WITH taking pictures I finished in 30 minutes. That's with taking photos! Imagine how fast it'll be without needing to do that! So here you go, Cucumber soup! 

Meet the entire cast! No really, this is it you guys! 

See that greek yogurt I snuck in there? See how secretly healthy this is!?

 So like I said, this is super easy!You know, so you don't have to sweat any more than you have to. First, chop the three cucumbers in half. Then peel them. You could peel it all first then chop it, but I found that it's kinda slippery, so it's better to chop them in half to begin with. This is where you'll run into the only hard part! Pesky seeds! 

Pretty but not so tasty if you get them in your soup! 

Now  I suppose you could just use a spoon to scrape out all the seeds. BUT I LIKE BEING FANCY! So I dug around my fancy drawer and found my melon baller! You guys, no joke, that thing is AWESOME. Use it to de-seed cucumbers. It's amazing! I bet you could use it for all sorts of things besides for melons! 

I cleaned this out in less than thirty seconds! 

After than you're going to cut it in half length wise then chop them in half cross wise. Not TOO small. Maybe an inch in width? You'll be putting it in a blender, so don't get out your rulers or anything! 

Chop, chop, chop!

Next you chop up the mint! I used mint from my garden, which is lemon mint, but you can add any kind you want! I feel like pineapple mint might make for a really interesting flavor! I didn't show how I minced the mint last time, so here's a picture by picture of how! 

Pile  them up on top of each other!

Roll 'em up!

slice em width wise!

Slice 'em length wise! You're done!

 That's the most complicated thing you're going to do! Next is the EASY part! I did this in two batches because I have a small blender. If you have a food processor, seriously use it! You're going to throw in your cucumbers, coconut milk (I used  cream because I wanted it thicker. LEARN FROM ME. Use the cream!), greek yogurt, cumin, a dash of salt, pepper, and mint! You can add your dill too, I forgot to add it in, and had to throw it in at the last minute! 

 


Blend it all up! Mine came out a bit...choppy? Fine granules of cucumber! Not bad at all, but I bet it could be made smoother with a nice blender or food processor. I think my blender is from the 90's. How it's still alive and kicking (mostly) I have NO idea. I think it sold its soul to run forever or something. 

Once your done, pour it into a bowl and adjust seasoning. Just so you know, salt actually becomes saltier when soaking in food over time, so go easy on the salt (again, LEARN FROM MISTAKES!). 

See the granules? It added a fun texture, but I think smoother would be better!

Added dill at the last minute as an afterthought! Oops!

This soup has to chill for at LEAST 3 hours  (makes it thick!), I made mine to rest overnight to have for lunch! It was so cooling and delicious! You can have the option to then cut up an extra cucumber (peeled of course!) and sprinkle it into your bowl. Or just enjoy it without them! I ate it both ways and loved it! The I wish you guys had smell-o-vision. This stuff smelled so good and tasted so light and refreshing! ENJOY! 


Cool Cucumber Soup

 4 Cucumbers peeled, seeded (Only 3. The fourth is for garnish) 

 1 cup greek yogurt

 1 14oz can coconut cream (coconut milk is fine if you can't find the cream, but I can't be blamed if it turns out more watery!) 

2 Tablespoons (or however much you want. I had more than 2) Mint

1/4 Teaspoon cumin 

Salt/Pepper to taste 

Dill to taste 

Directions: 

Peel, de-seed, and chop up 3 cucumbers. Mince the mint. Put everything in a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend it up! Readjust seasoning if you wish--remember that salt gets saltier in dishes over time! if it's under salted by the time you take it out, just add more salt then! Pour soup in bowl and cover, putting in fridge to sit for at LEAST 3 hours. Overnight is better! 

Magical Tomato Soup

Hello Soup lovers! It's been a while, I know! There's this thing called life (and three other blogs) that tends to get in the way of not only making soups, but posting about them! So here is a magical soup to tide you all over! The magical part is the lack of 8 million ingredients! Normally this soup takes like...45 minutes TOPS to make. But if you're taking photos along the way (and by yourself, mind you!) then it takes more like...an hour and a half....oops? This soup is thick, delicious, and easy to make! I hope you like tomatoes, because this is nothing but! And if you grow your own Pomodoro (or Amish Paste) this recipe is perfect for them!

   Alright lets get this party started! First, grab yourself a glass of wine like I did--because cooking starts with a good glass! Tonight I had this!

Now to introduce to you the cast of characters! I forgot to add the Chicken Broth into the picture! Oops!

 Now the easy part! Take a sip of wine and get to work! Chop up the onions--you don't have to chop 'em up small, you'll be putting it in a blender--and mince the garlic! That's about the only actual work you have to do! 

See how easy that was?! I know chopping and mincing is strenuous, so go ahead and take another drink or two of wine! Next you're going to do the even easier part! Heat up the 2 T of olive oil. As you can tell I added 1 T of butter. This is because butter makes everything better (but it IS optional)!

Then throw in the garlic and onions for a minute or two, then add in the Herbs, Bay Leaf, and Cayenne pepper! let it cook until the onions are soft--about 3 minutes.

Now add in your can of Whole Tomatoes, chicken broth, sugar, salt, and pepper! Stir it, bring it to a simmer, then lower the heat and cover it for 30 minutes! 

 

Whew, you did it! Pour yourself another glass in conradualtions! Now you only have three more things to do! Make the lemon mint yogurt (if you want it. This soup is good without it as well, but the lemony yogurt just tastes sooooo good!). First you need your ingredients!

 Now don't fear this part, I promise it isn't scary! But take some liquid courage if you're the kind that faints easily. Open your yogurt and pour it into a small bowl and mix it around. Then cut your lemon and remove the seeds and put the juice into the yogurt (don't worry if it seems watery, when you put it in the fridge it thickens up again!). Then chop up your mint! 

To mince the mint you get your leaves in a pile then roll them up. Slice them thinly in one direction (aka julien them) and they'll look like this. You CAN just leave them like this. But I like to mince mine. To do so is super easy! Just cut them the opposite direction and you get this!: 

Then add them into the yogurt, give it a stir, cover, and put in the fridge! Once this back braking manual labor is over you just wait for your soup to finish!

 

Once the 30 minutes are up, blend your soup with either a immersion blender or a normal blender! At this point you can (if you want) put in the can of diced tomatoes and let it heat up for a few minutes. I made this before and I personally felt it needed a bit more 'chunk'. 

Pour in bowls, add in the lemon mint yogurt, and you're done! Enjoy with your glass of wine and some crusty bread! This soup is super easy to make and makes 4 bowls! Unless people want seconds. Then you might have to double the recipe--which is what happened to me! Enjoy!

Magical Tomato Soup: 

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (personally I use chicken, because it gives more depth of flavor)

1 can of  28 oz. whole peeled tomatoes

1 12 oz. can of diced tomatoes (optional)

1 yellow onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tsp of sugar

a TINY dash of Cayenne pepper (less than 1/8 tsp. just trust me on this.)

Salt & Pepper

1 Tablespoon Herbs de Provence or Italian Mix (or to taste)

2 large bay leaves

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Lemon-mint Yogurt: 

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

2 Tablespoons fresh mint  (or to taste)

Juice of 1 lemon

Directions: 

Chop up onions roughly, mince garlic. In large soup pot heat up 2 tablespoons olive oil (extra 1 T of butter optional but yummy!). Throw in garlic and onions and let soften, 1 minute. Add in Italian herbs, bay leaves, and tiny dash of Cayenne better. Let soften 2 to 3 minutes. Add in can of whole tomatoes, salt, pepper, then chicken broth. Turn up heat to bring to a hard simmer, then put on low and cover for 30 minutes. When finished use immersion blender or blender to puree it. Add in additional can of diced tomatoes if you want them.

For the yogurt, use 1 cup (I just use one cup of Trader Joes) greek yogurt and put in small bowl. Cut lemon in half and add the juice to yougurt and stir. Mince fresh mint and add into yogurt. Cover and put in fridge until ready to use. 

Abondigas Soup

Abondigas soup is one of my favorite soups to order at my favorite Mexican restaurant. This was the first time that I have ever made this soup in my entire life!!! I combined a couple of recipes to get the desired resemblance I wanted! It is a two step process: making meatballs and making soup. You are supposed to boil the meatballs in the soup while its cooking, but my family loves them too much to fit it all in one pot. So, I switched up the game by cooking them in the oven. Hope you enjoy this soup as much as we did!!!! Happy Souping!

 

These are the ingredients needed for this soup (minus the rice, I forgot). This time, the soup only cost me $6.68 because we already had the broth and tomato sauce. The celery, carrots and potato* (I would not have had enough room in the pot for so I did not add it, its sad for I love potatoes) were left over from the Super Loaded Baked Potato soup. My goal is to not waste anything, so I was super happy that I was able to reuse these ingredients! (Also, it saves some money). The total cost per serving (at around 10 servings) was only $0.67!

 

The first step I did, was to wash the cilantro. After, I pulled the little leaves off the stem and chopped them all up. I divided it in half: one half for the meatballs and the other half for the soup.

 

I cooked the rice and let it cool. I placed it in a bowl along with the ground beef, garlic, cilantro, cumin, salt & pepper, and egg. I mixed it up and rolled them into balls. I placed them in a baking dish that was sprayed with Pam and placed them in the oven at 350* for 35 -40 minutes.

 

After the meatballs were thoroughly cooked, I placed them off to the side.

 

Next, I used 7 cups of beef broth and placed it in the stock pot.

 

I then added all of the veggies in the broth as well as the tomato sauce, cumin, oregano, and salt&pepper.

 

I brought the soup up to a boil, then reduced the heat to let it simmer for 30 minutes.

 

A few minutes before the soup was finished, I added some of the meatballs into the soup to warm them up and to let them absorb the broth.

 

 

This is the final result!!! With this recipe, I was able to get about 10 servings out of it. There were five of us eating and we all had seconds. It was pretty close to the soup that I order from my favorite restaurant and I LOVED IT!!

 

The printable version

Abondigas Soup

 

 



Abondigas Soup

MeatBalls:  (Makes around 20 good sized meatballs)

§  2 lbs ground beef
§  1 egg
§  4 garlic cloves
§  1 cup of uncooked rice
§  Cilantro leaves, chopped
§  2 teaspoons ground cumin
§  Salt and pepper

 Abondigas Soup:

§  7 cups beef broth
§  ¾ cup onion, chopped
§  3 stalks of celery, chopped
§  3 carrots, peeled and chopped
§  1 large zucchini, chopped
§  ½ a small head of cabbage, chopped
§  1  8oz can of tomato sauce
§  Cilantro leaves, chopped
§  ¾ teaspoon ground cumin
§  1 ½ teaspoons oregano
§  Salt and pepper to taste

 1.        Make the meatballs first. Turn oven on to 350*. Next, need to cook the 1 cup of rice until fully cooked, let it cool. In a bowl mix the hamburger meat, cooled riced (do not need to refrigerate, only needs to be cool enough to handle), one egg, garlic, cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. Mix together thoroughly. Form medium size meatballs in hand and place in a pam sprayed baking dish. When finished making all the balls, place the baking dish in the oven for 35-40 minutes (can be more or less depending on the size of the meatballs) until it is fully cooked. Set aside.

2.      Combine Beef Broth, onion, celery, carrot, zucchini, cabbage, tomato sauce, cilantro leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt & pepper.

3.      Bring to a boil, and reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

4.     A few minutes before the soup is ready, place some (or all) of the meatballs in the soup.

5.      Enjoy.