Savory

Lemon Lentil Soup

I’m super into lemon lentil soup. I order it from Anita’s weekly. The truth is that I miss it as soon as my bowl’s empty.

So I knew I needed to attempt to make this dreamy soup. And it turned out so tasty! It’s super flavorful with fresh dill and juice from two large lemons all up in it. So there you go! And, no pressure, but I totally think you should make French Bread to go with it. Trust me on this one.

P.S. I used my food processor to chop the veggies. I don’t have confidence in onion-dicing. My eyes water like crazy. I generally end up chopping onions super-roughly and tossing them in the pot with my eyes shut. I didn’t do that with this one in an attempt to show this soup a bit of respect.

Lemon Lentil Soup {serves 6-8}
Recipe adapted from Care2.com

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 cups diced onions
  • 2 T crushed garlic
  • 1 1/2 cups finely diced carrots
  • 1 cup diced potato
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cup dry red lentils
  • 5 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 t cumin
  • juice from 2 lemons, about 2/3 cup, or to taste
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
  • 2-4 cups packed chopped fresh greens*
  • salt + pepper to taste
  • feta, for sprinkling

* kale, chard, spinach, or mustard

Directions:

  1. In a large soup pot, saute the onions, garlic, carrots, potato, and bay leaves in oil until the potato just begins to soften; about 15 minutes.
  2. Rinse the lentils and add them to the pot. Continue to saute for 5 minutes. Add stock, cumin, and a big pinch of salt and some pepper. Reduce heat to medium. Cover the pot and simmer until lentils and vegetables are tender; about 15 minutes.
  3. Just before serving, remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, chopped dill, and greens. Stir until greens have wilted. Remove bay leaves. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately sprinkled with some crumbled feta.

YAY! Click HERE for a printable pdf of the recipe above.

Those olives were my desert.

23 thoughts on “Lemon Lentil Soup”

  1. Great! I’m getting tired of the same old Middle Eastern version I’ve been making ..

    I’m assuming I can substitute “yellow” lentils (since my wife bought a freakin’ 5 pound bag of them at Eastern Market)

  2. you know what’s so weird? when i have my contacts in, i can chop onions like a champ and it doesn’t bug me. but if i have my glasses on, my eyes are a teary, watery, stinging, hot mess!

  3. Super duper yummy. I adore lentils. I feel you on the eyes watering while chopping onions thing. 2 things I’ve figured out: 1) Contacts help– glasses make it worse bc they traps whatever chemical the onions give off and 2) the fresher the onions, the more they will make your eyes sting (farmer’s market onions = much more than warehouse-stored supermarket onions).

    1. Man! I tried to wear fake glasses to ward off the tears and now I know why it didn’t work. I get bullied by onions every time.

  4. Did you get a new camera, or swallow a photography book?
    Site is looking stunning, more professional every time I come to it.

    Keep up the good work

    1. Shucks! Thanks, Sian. I still have the same old camera. Nothing fancy. But I’ve been totally trying to improve my photos, so thanks so much for the lovely compliment!

  5. lentil soup is one of my all-time faves!!! the addition of the fresh dill and lemon juice sounds so delicious. i can’t wait to try this recipe on a cool winter’s day.

    p.s. your blog is great!

  6. You have no idea how happy I am to have found your recipe! I feel the exact same way about Anita’s lemon lentil soup. We eat there almost weekly and when we miss a week a usually get a take-out of just the soup and I too feel sad as soon as it’s gone. I am going to try this recipe tonight!

    1. Yes! I’m glad you found this too! And yeah man, Anita’s just knows what’s up! I hope you like this as much as I do. 🙂

  7. Pingback: Cinnamon Ice Cream

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