- You guys, I am so excited
to finally be able to share a recipe
from my brand new cookbook with you today
and that's this lemony lentil and chickpea soup.
If you've made my very best lentil soup recipe
on my website, which has been a reader favorite for years,
you are absolutely gonna love this new version
of lentil soup, which trades the tomato base
for a very bright and uplifting lemony one.
Lentil soups are my favorite as they're hardy,
nourishing and full meal kind of soups
rather than side soups.
And this recipe is a perfect example
of the kind of meal that you're gonna find
in the vegetarian chapter of my cookbook.
Yes, I have an entire chapter dedicated to vegetarian mains.
So let's dive into today's recipe
and along the way I'll give you
a few more sneak peeks of my cookbook
which I cannot wait for you to have in your own hands.
This lemony lentil and chickpeas soup
is on page 213 of my cookbook, and as I'm flipping through,
you can get a glimpse of some of the other recipes.
There are so many photos in this cookbook
because it was a requirement of mine
that every single recipe had a photo.
I'm such a visual person, and based on your feedback,
I think you guys are too.
I should also add that all recipes have both
imperial and metric measurements
because I know this community of down shifters
spans far and wide across the globe.
And every recipe also has storage and reheating instructions
because it is a meal prep cookbook after all
and there's helpful tips and nutrition.
So to get started with this recipe,
you'll need to dice one medium yellow onion.
And while I'm dicing that up,
I have a question for you guys.
I've been thinking of switching up
how I film videos for next year.
Right now, I film all of the cooking
and then add voiceovers afterwards.
It's a really lengthy process to make videos this way,
but it does make for a clean and easy to understand video.
I've been debating filming where
I cook and talk at the same time,
sort of how I did on my recent cookbook live stream,
which I'll link in the description box below.
That method is a bit more raw and chatty and unpolished,
but because I talk and cook at the same time,
it does make for easier editing.
Anyway, just wanted to get your thoughts on
if you have a preference in terms of video style.
So if you do, let me know in the comments below.
After the onion is diced up, add that to a bowl
and then dice up two ribs of celery.
You can add the celery to the same bowl on top of the onion.
Now, I don't think any soup is complete without garlic,
one of my favorite ingredients,
and you'll need three garlic cloves for this recipe.
So just peel them and set them aside for now.
There are two herbs used in this recipe, thyme and oregano,
which gives the soup a bit of a Mediterranean flare
especially with the lemon flavor.
You'll need two tablespoons of roughly chopped fresh thyme,
but if you don't have fresh,
you can add about two teaspoons of dried thyme.
You probably saw in the recipe photo at the beginning
there's lots of green in this soup
and that's thanks to two packed cups of baby spinach.
If you don't have spinach, you could also use kale, chard,
or another leafy green, and then just roughly chop that up
so it's a bit more bite sized.
The predominant flavor in this soup is a bright lemony one,
so zest and juice one large lemon.
You should get about one tablespoon of zest
and three tablespoons of juice.
And as I always say, there's just no comparison
between fresh lemon juice and jarred lemon juice,
so do make sure to use fresh lemon here.
All right, let's chat lentils.
The lentils I'm using in this particular soup
are red lentils.
Red lentils, unlike green, brown, or black lentils
naturally break down into
a really soft texture after boiling
which means no blending is necessary for this soup.
And that's always a bonus, isn't it?
You'll need one and a half cups of red lentils
and just make sure to give those a rinse and
pick them over to make sure there's no debris
or shriveled lentils.
And I should have definitely used a larger fine mesh sieve
for doing this to make things easier.
Okay, all the prep work is done.
So let's make this lentil soup.
Add two tablespoons of olive oil
to a large pot over medium heat.
Add the onion and celery and saute these
for about four to five minutes
or until the onion becomes translucent.
Then add the garlic by mincing it straight into the pot
and somehow I managed to not film that part,
but saute the garlic for another minute or so.
Add the lentils, six cups of low sodium vegetable broth,
one 15 and a half ounce can of chick peas
that you've drained and rinsed,
the roughly chopped fresh thyme,
one teaspoon of dried oregano, one teaspoon of kosher salt,
and half a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.
Then bring that to a simmer.
(soft upbeat music)
Once at simmering,
cover the pot and cook the soup for about 15 minutes
making sure to stir occasionally in the process.
After the 15 minutes is up, add the chopped spinach
and stir that for another five to eight minutes or so
until the spinach is lightly wilted
and the lentils are softened and starting to break apart.
(soft upbeat music)
Remove the lentil soup from the heat
and to give it that final punch of lemon flavor,
add the freshly squeezed lemon juice and lemon zest
and then stir that all together.
Trust me when I say that your entire family
is going to love this lemony lentil and chickpea soup.
And you can see when I take a big scoop
that the lentils are really soft and broken down
which again means you don't have to transfer any soup
to a blender or get in there with your immersion blender.
It's just naturally the perfect balance
of chunky and soft textures
which makes this soup feel hardy, but also light and fresh.
If you watch last week's video for black bean soup
and have been following my daily stories on social media,
you know I've really been on a soup kick this year.
They're just so darn good for meal prep.
And this recipe will stay good in an airtight container
in the fridge for four to five days
or in the freezer for up to three months.
And to reheat it,
all you have to do is thaw in the fridge overnight,
if it's been frozen,
then microwave it for one to two minutes
or cook it on the stove until it's warmed through.
But as these lemony, thyme and oregano flavors are
wafting through my kitchen,
I'm of course going to serve myself a portion of this soup.
And if you wanna make it a smidge fancier before serving,
you can always top it with more fresh thyme
and a sprinkle a freshly ground black pepper.
(soft upbeat music)
If you haven't ordered my cookbook yet,
I've got a link for it below in the description box.
And if you pre-order before December 6th,
which is the published date,
you'll get five recipes right now
this very moment before the book even comes out
including two recipes that don't appear in the book
or on my website or on my YouTube channel.
They're only available to those who pre-order.
So make sure to pre-order, again, before December 6th.
Thank you guys so much for all of your love and support
on this cookbook.
It really does mean the world to me.
You guys are seriously the best
and I can't wait for you all to have it in your hands
in just a few more weeks.
And with that, I'm going to go back to enjoying
my lemony lentil and chickpea soup
and I will see you again in the next video.
(soft upbeat music)