winter is in full blast and it seems like it’s going to stay for a little while. to compensate the cold weather, i work out a lot, drink hot chocolate with delicious vanilla marshmallows on top {wedding gift}, bake and make healthy soups in the crock pot.
growing up, i had to eat a lot of beans, and beans soups. lentils {red and green}, black beans, dark kidney beans, etc. black beans are actually part of our typical dish “pabellon” … plaintains, rice, shredded beef and black beans.
even though it was always warm, we ate soups. weird, right?
the lentil soup i made this past week is easy and nutritious.
the pictures don’t look appealing at all, but i promise it tastes really, really good.
here’s the how-to and final result. enjoy!
after cooking vegetables for a while, put them in a food processor or blender.
scoop out 1 cup of lentils and add to food processor.
puree until smooth.
add mixture back in the crock pot and mix well.
garnish with cubed avocados, cilantro and cayenne pepper.
green lentil soup
ingredients:
1 lb bag green lentils {i use la preferida}
6 cups lukewarm water
1/2 medium onion, cut in big chunks
3 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1 green onion, barely chopped
1/2 orange or red bell pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt, more or less if needed
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, more or less {it depends how much of a kick you like in your food}
avocados, cilantro and cayenne pepper to garnish {optional}
serves 6 people.
directions:
rinse lentils in a large strainer in the kitchen sink for a minute or so until clean. i rinse them in batches because it’s a bit easier to handle.
put lentils in a slow cooker with the water. add curry powder, paprika, pepper, onions, garlic and green onion. cook in the slow setting for 6 hours. or about 4 hours over high. if you don’t have a crock pot, you can use the oven at 350F for 3 hours or so.
once the lentils are done, turn the crock pot off.
next, dig for all the vegetable chunks {pepper, onions, garlic and green onion}. take out as many as you can and set aside in a bowl or plate. trust me, it’s worth the time digging for it!
set a food processor or blender up. add vegetable chunks to food processor. also scoop out 1 cup of the lentils from the crock pot and add to processor or blender.
make sure to get some liquid when you scoop out the lentils. if you didn’t, go back to crock pot and scoop out about 1/4 cup of liquid in addition to the 1 cup of lentils you already have.
blend until consistency is smooth. it will look like baby food, but it’s good! add mixture to lentils in crock pot and mix well.
serve with avocados, fresh cilantro and a dash of cayenne pepper.
