Lemony Red Lentil Soup with Cilantro: Easy Comfort for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

This will be a very quick post. I have a doozy of a cold and feel pretty awful. Luckily I have Mark Bittman at the ready for easy recipes, and this is a very low effort soup to make. The lentils, broth, and lemon are good for my scratchy throat and stuffed up nose, and the ingredients are from my pantry which means less buying and less food waste. I added a carrot wasting away in my veggie drawer to the mix and changed out the chicken broth to a vegan version. If you use the cilantro stems along with the leaves, that's even less waste.

Lemony Red Lentil Soup with Cilantro
Adapted from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express via Redbook.com
(Makes 4 Servings)

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
(I added one medium carrot, chopped)
1 cup red lentils
4 cups broth (I used non-chicken bouillon) 
1 cup packed cilantro leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
salt
5 tsp fresh lemon juice, or to taste

Heat 2 Tbsp of the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion about 4-5 min, until soft. Add lentils and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer and cook about 25 minutes until lentils are soft. 

Puree the cilantro leave with 1/4 cup oil and salt in a mini chop. Set aside. 

Puree about half of the lentil mixture in a food processor or blender, until almost smooth. Return blended soup to the pan, add fresh lemon juice to taste.

Serve with cilantro puree drizzled on top. 

Notes/Results: I'm pretty sure this soup is really good but in truth I can just barely taste it with my cold today. What I can taste is good though, and it hit the spot for lunch before I napped and filled my stomach before I napped. The half-pureed lentils along with the whole lentils makes the texture thick, but not too thick and I like the cilantro oil when it is stirred in. I think it and the lemon bring the brighter notes lentils need to pop. It's satisfying on it's own but for heavier appetites I'd add some bread or basmati rice. I would make it again.

Linking up with I Heart Cooking Clubs where this week's theme is our 2020 Food Trends Challenge January: Zero Food Waste.

Tina joined us in  the Souper Sundays kitchen this week, let's look at what she brought.

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor brought Chicken and Rice Soup and said, "I had a container of brothy short grain rice, a lonely few carrots and mushrooms, fresh corn and leftover roasted chicken. Do we really need a recipe for this? Nope! Add seasoning and spices per taste. I used salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano. Here's a bowl with cheddar cheese as a topping."

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week!