Lentil Quinoa Soup

 We eat a lot of soup at our house.  It's easy, filling, and comforting.  We also like to do meatless Mondays, so I tend to turn to beans or lentils for those days.  This soup is mildly spicy, full of protein, and packed with flavor.  My family loves to eat it, especially if we have homemade flatbread along with it to dunk.  

I hope you try this, if you do, let me know what you think!





Lentil Quinoa Soup

2-3 TB olive oil
4 carrots
1 onion
2 celery stalks
3 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno
diced tomatoes (optional)
6-8 cups chicken, veggie or mushroom broth
2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1lb lentils rinsed
3/4 C of quinoa

Optional spices: 2 tsp of curry powder, 5 spice powder, coriander, or any combo of them.  I used 2tsp curry powder, 1 tsp of a spice mix that is a bit like 5 spice powder


If you have a food processor, or a mini prep, it makes this so much easier.  I did a rough chop on all the veg, and threw them in the food processor until it was diced really fine.  This is a lentil soup, so you don't want huge chunks of veggies, you want them tiny like the lentils. If you don't have a processor, just do your best to dice it fine. Also, the heat of the jalapeno is in the membrane and seeds, discard if you don't want heat.  This soup is mildly spicy.

In a large pot, on med heat, warm up the oil.  Reserving the tomatoes, add the diced veggies, jalapeno and spices.  Lightly salt the veggies, don't over salt. Let the veggies sweat until softened. 5-10 minutes on med heat.   Add the lentils and stir to coat them in the spices and veggies.  Add the broth.  You can use water in addition to broth, or instead of broth.  I used about 6 cups broth and 2 cups water.

Bring to boil, reduce to a simmer.  Add in the quinoa, and stir.  Partially cover the pot and let simmer 30-40 minutes. Stir every few minutes so they don't stick to the bottom.   Lentils don't take long to cook, but like other legumes, they are starchy and you want to watch them so they don't stick and burn.  Add the tomatoes after 20 minutes or so, so they don't over cook.

Taste, add salt as needed and enjoy!