Veganuary Day 4 - Lentil Soup

Jan 04, 2025

Hi there, Happy Saturday!

Today, I’m sharing a recipe that I used to hate growing up, and it has now become a favorite at home when I need something nutritious, cozy, and easy to prepare. This recipe is called Lentejas at home, and even if Lentejas means Lentils, when you get offered Lentejas in Spain, it always refers to this traditional Lentil Soup.

If you know Spanish cuisine, you’re probably thinking of Tortilla de Patata, Bravas, Paella, or Tapas, but believe me, this is something that is cooked in every Spanish house weekly, especially during the colder months, so if you haven’t tried this recipe yet, I suggest you do 😊. I used to hate my mum’s lentejas, but as I grew, I started cooking them with more spices and veggies, which made this one of my favorite recipes up to this day.

I made this dish today cause after a two-week holiday, we felt like we needed something very nutritious and packed with veggies.

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Ingredients

Lentils. For our Carrot Lentil Soup, we use "lentejas pardinas," a type of brown lentil that cooks fast enough, and you can easily find it in Spain. You can use any type of brown or green lentils for this recipe. Optionally, you can make this meal using red lentils, like the ones we use to make our own soy-free tofu, or protein wraps, but you will need to adapt the cooking time as they cook faster. If you are using canned lentils, you can add them at the end when the rest of the ingredients are cooked. You will have to reduce the amount of water indicated in the recipe card.

Fresh veggies. This is a one-pot meal where you can add almost every veggie that you have in the fridge. I love making lentil soup when I have loads of veggies that need use as it cleans the fridge and makes a healthy meal at the same time. For our recipe, we use large carrots, green beans, leeks, yellow onions, garlic, tomatoes, and potatoes. Other veggies that we use sometimes are zucchini, cabbage, celery, spinach, sweet potato, or red pepper. You can also use tomato paste or canned tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes.

Spice mix. For our Lentil Soup recipe, we use a regular blend that contains sweet paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander, curry, and bay leaves. We add salt and pepper as well, to season the dish. We have made this dish so many times that we have tried different ingredients such as yeast flakes, chili powder, or chilli flakes to make it spicier, garam masala, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc. They all work well, and depending on your taste, you can adjust the amount of spices you use or create your own spice blend.

Tofu. When we make this filling meal, we like preparing some tofu to add to it. We marinade the tofu cut into small pieces with some soy sauce, sweet paprika, and maple syrup, so the taste resembles the Spanish Chorizo. Then, we simply pan-fried the pieces for a few minutes and add them to our lentil soup. Delicious!

Step-by-Step Method

Using a Dutch oven or a large saucepan, heat some olive oil to medium heat. Add the onion and leek finely chopped. When they start to soften, add the spice mix and minced garlic and stir until fragrant.

Finely chop the carrots, fresh tomatoes, and green beans and add to the pot. Stir well, cook for a couple of minutes, and add a little water to deglaze the pan if needed.

Add the lentils, and combine well with the rest of the ingredients.

Pour the vegetable stock, bring to a simmer, and leave cooking for about 20 minutes.

Add the potatoes and keep cooking until the lentils are tender.

Drizzle some white vinegar or lemon juice to enhance the flavors, and serve with some bread or pan-fried tofu.

To prepare the tofu, cut it into small cubes, and marinate it in an airtight container with soy sauce, sweet paprika, and maple syrup. Mix well (shake the airtight container) and leave for about 10 minutes. Then add some oil to a non-stick pan and cook until the tofu cubes are golden brown.

This tofu will resemble Chorizo, which is usually added to Spanish lentils.