Lentil Minestrone

It all started with beautiful chard at the grocery store.  When I saw that bunch of greens, I knew it needed to come home with me and jump into action via minestrone. Beginning the new year with a warming soup fills the house with the scents of fragrant vegetables and herbs. And this lentil minestrone, adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, is just the antidote for chilly evenings.

I began at the end of Madison’s recipe, where she says to boil greens briefly before cooling and chopping them to add in the last stage of cooking the soup.  Thinking that a good new year’s resolution might be washing fewer dishes, I used the same pot to pre-cook the chard and pasta before beginning the soup base.

This method allows the chard to maintain its bright verdant color and the pasta its texture. But if you’re planning to make the soup ahead of time, it also allows you to put the greens and noodles aside for a day or two, separate from the soup, to use later.

The root vegetables and aromatics that build the base of the soup are winter workhorses.  To Madison’s list of veggies, I added a fennel bulb and bit more garlic.

I also elected to stretch out the time that the chopped vegetables sauté so that the soup develops layers of flavor. After the onion has had a chance to take on a golden color, chopped carrots, celery, and fennel join the fun in the pot.  They are followed by parsley and garlic, and then the whole gang meets its friend tomato paste for a quick stir-around.

While Madison suggests a 30 minute cooking time once the broth has been added, I extended the simmering to 45 minutes.  That gives the aromatic herbs more time to infuse the broth with their flavors, yet the vegetables and lentils retain their texture.

Simple background notes of parsley, thyme and bay leaves give this soup a delicate flavor.  I also used mushroom soy sauce, which I bought at a local Asian grocery store, to fill out the taste of the soup.  And don’t forget that the lentils in the soup are high in fiber, low in fat, and rank as a superstar legume (the third most protein dense legume out there).  Because the pasta is also in the soup, you’ll have a complete protein package.  (You’re welcome, New Year’s Resolution to eat healthy foods!)

Once the burbling broth has reached its cooking time, all you have to do is fish out the aromatics and add your prepared chard and pasta.  And sprinkle a bit of Parmesan on top.  A warming bowl of winter goodness is now all yours to enjoy and share.

Lentil Minestrone

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

Vegetable-rich minestrone perfect for chilly days

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Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

• Greens 1 bunch of chard or spinach
• 2 cups cooked small pasta shells, orecchiette, etc.—I used 1 cup of dried pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion diced
• 3 carrots peeled and diced
• 3 stems celery diced
• 1 fennel bulb diced
• 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
• 6 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup green lentils sometimes called French lentils
• Aromatics: 2 bay leaves 8 parsley branches, 6 thyme sprigs
• 9 cups vegetable stock or water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Mushroom soy sauce optional
• Parmesan cheese
• Tabasco to taste
• Extra olive oil for drizzling

Instructions

 

• Bring several cups of water to a boil in a large soup pot. If using chard, remove leaves from stems. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt to the water. Cook the greens in the salted water until they’re tender and bright green—just 3-4 minutes, then scoop out of the water, drain, and cool. (Keep the cooking water in the pot to use for the pasta.) Use your hands to squeeze moisture from the greens and chop them coarsely. Set aside.
• Bring the water back to a boil and add the pasta. Cook one minute less than the package instructions note for al dente. Drain in a colander and pour cool water over to stop the cooking. Drain thoroughly. Put the pasta aside with the greens.
• Drain the water from the soup pot. Heat the oil in this same pot with the onions over medium high heat. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of salt over onions. Sauté, stirring frequently, until light golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add the carrots, celery, and fennel, and cook 4-5 minutes more. Stir in the garlic and parsley and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and stir for another minute. Add the broth (or water), stirring to combine with the vegetable mixture. Next put in the lentils and aromatics, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 45 minutes. Taste for salt and season with pepper. If it needs more depth, add mushroom soy sauce to taste, starting with 1 tablespoon (I used 2 tablespoons).
• Remove the aromatics.
• Just before serving, add the greens and the pasta to the soup and heat through. Taste again, adjusting salt and pepper, adding a couple of dashes of Tabasco or more soy sauce, if you wish.
• Serve with extra virgin olive oil drizzled into each bowl, a generous grind of pepper, and the Parmesan.

Notes

Soup can be made 3 days in advance. Cool, cover and refrigerate vegetable and lentil mixture separately from cooked chopped greens and cooked pasta. If you toss the cooked pasta with a teaspoon or two of olive oil after it has drained, the noodles will stay separate until you add them to the soup.

Adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone