What is lentil cream soup? How to cook it? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article. If you are tired of simple soups with onions, carrots, chicken, you want something light and healthy, then there is a solution. Lentil cream soup has an extraordinary taste, benefits and gives satiety.
Vitamins C, A, group B, phosphorus, folic acid, vegetable protein, iron, potassium and other trace elements - this will get your body if you start eating such food. To get enough, you will need a very small portion. How to make lentil cream soup, find out below.
Lentil selection
So how to cook lentil cream soup? First, find out how to choose and prepare lentils for its creation. You need to know what types it is. The red Egyptian fruits of the shell do not have. Such lentils are cooked very quickly, so it is often used for mashed potatoes and soups. In Asian cuisine and in India, it is chosen as the base for stews.
Green lentils keep their shape, not fully ripened, not cooked, used for salads. Most gourmets serve it as a side dish for meat dishes. Brown lentils are cooked quite quickly, ripened - has a spicy nutty flavor. Casseroles and soups are an ideal use for this type of food.
Beans of different colors hardly differ in taste. Based on what dish you want to make, choose the set shade (the time and method of cooking depend on it). Common types of raw lentils are greenish and brown. The first one has very fine grains and even after long cooking the beans remain harder than other varieties. Yellow lentils are green lentils with no shell. If you bought black lentils, add it to salads, vegetable dishes and soups.
Cooking nuances
Beans are often not soaked at all before cooking. If you want to add lentils to mashed potatoes, set the cooking time longer, less for salads. Before making sure to remove garbage, rinse the grains with cool water a couple of times.
Lentils need to be cooked for 15 to 45 minutes, put first in boiling water, then - make the fire weaker. Salt is added 5 minutes before being cooked.
Recipes
If this is your first time using lentil cream soup, use the quick and healthy recipes below. They will help you learn all the nuances and beautifully serve this dish for dinner, lunch, breakfast.
Do you think such recipes are suitable only for every day? Not at all! Serve lentil soups and on the festive table.
From yellow lentils with garlic croutons and chicken
We present to your attention a recipe for lentil cream soup with garlic croutons and chicken. Yellow lentils simplify the process of creating food, because it is originally peeled from the skins, so it will cook quickly. No wonder the chefs of Italy prefer this recipe to the rest. So, to create a satisfying, refined and healthy dish, we take:
- 1 cup (200 g) yellow lentils;
- 600 g chicken fillet;
- two cloves of garlic;
- 500 g of potatoes;
- 2 tbsp. l tomato paste;
- two onions;
- White bread;
- one carrot;
- spices, pepper and salt.
This recipe with a photo of lentil cream soup demonstrates how the dish should look in the end.
- First, wash the fillet, send it to a pot of water, cook the broth.
- Peel onions, potatoes and carrots, cut into small cubes.
- When the chicken is cooked (after half an hour), remove it. Send the potatoes to the pot.
- Rinse the lentil grains in running water, and cook with soup.
- Fry with tomato paste, carrots and onions, transfer to a pan.
- Add spices to the lentil soup, bring it to the ready.
- Pour the chicken-free dish into a blender, chop to a creamy consistency.
- Dice the chicken, send it to the soup.
- Grate the slices of white bread with garlic and fry.
Serve the prepared soup with croutons to the table.
With bulgur in Turkish
Let's find out how to cook lentil cream soup in Turkish. This dish belongs to vegetarian, dietary cuisine. It is very light, so it won’t add you extra kilos. You will need:
- 0.5 tbsp. wheat groats (bulgur);
- a glass of red lentils;
- one onion;
- 1 tbsp. l tomato paste;
- hot black pepper;
- two beef bones (for broth);
- salt;
- dry mint.
The recipe for lentil cream soup in Turkish stipulates the following steps:
- First, cook the beef broth (then use meat for another dish).
- Fry the onions in a separate pan. Mix tomato paste with a cup of broth, pour into the onion. The mixture should boil for 3 minutes.
- Drain the cereals and lentils. Send it to boil in the broth with the rest of the ingredients. Stir the lentils more often, otherwise they will burn.
- Add dry mint, bring the soup to a boil, leave over low heat. Cooking time is half an hour, that is, until the wheat groats with lentils are fully cooked.
Serve soup with fresh herbs.
Vegetarian recipe
If you want to diversify your menu with vegetarian dishes, while reducing calories consumed, then lentil soup will do just fine with this task. To improve this recipe, add your favorite foods to it, chopping them in a blender. The result is a dense cream soup, for example, pumpkin or mushroom. Take:
- four potatoes;
- one onion;
- 100 g lentils;
- one carrot;
- two bell peppers;
- greens;
- bay leaf;
- spices and salt.
Cook this dish like this:
- Wash all vegetables, boil 1.5 l of water in a saucepan, adding salt.
- Fry chopped onions and carrots in a pan. Send them to boil in a pot of water.
- Cut the pepper into strips, dice the potatoes. Send the vegetables to the pot.
- When the potatoes are cooked in half, wash the lentils and dip in the soup.
- 5 minutes before the end of cooking, put a bay leaf and other spices.
- Turn off the fire, remove the bay leaf. Twist the resulting mass in a blender.
By the way, the calorie content of 100 g of lentils is only 295 kcal. This is not so much for a product that contains a lot of protein and other essential trace elements. The calorie content of 100 g of lentil soup is approximately 150 kcal (depending on the components).
With cream
We suggest you cook an amazing lentil cream soup with cream. To create it you need:
- 100 g carrots;
- 10 g of garlic;
- 100 g of onions;
- 1 liter of water;
- 35 g olive oil;
- 150 ml cream 20%;
- 300 g red lentils;
- 5 g ground black pepper (to taste);
- salt (to taste);
- 20 g of parsley.
Cook the soup as follows:
- Rinse the lentils and cover with cool water.
- Cut the carrots into 3-4 mm thick circles, the onions into half rings, chop the garlic.
- Sauté the olive onion until soft. Add garlic and carrots, fry all together for another 5 minutes.
- Drain the lentils with excess water.
- Send lentils to the carrot pan with onions. Cook everything with the lid closed for 15 minutes.
- Grind the soup in a blender.
- Next, pour in the cream, bring everything to a boil and remove from the stove.
Garnish the soup with greens before serving.
Tips
To create a puree soup, yellow and red varieties of lentils are most suitable, as they boil well, but retain all the useful qualities. They make the finished dish delicious and vibrant. Brown and green lentils during the cooking process preserves the form longer, therefore it is usually used to create transparent soups.
To quickly cook lentils, it must be soaked in advance in water for a couple of hours. This water is drained before cooking, and lentils are washed. It is necessary to lay it in boiling water, as we wrote above.
Peel the tomatoes before sending them to the pan with vegetables. If you immerse them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, you can do this easily.
Before adding vegetable roasting to boiling lentils, check the volume of water in the pan - it should cover about 5 cm of lentils. If there is more water, the soup will turn out to be very liquid.
In addition to seasoning curry, you can use other oriental spices - mint, pepper, cardamom, zira, caraway seeds.
If you add sour cream or cream to a bowl with ready-made soup, they will improve the taste of the soup and make it more satisfying. Those who want to leave it dietary and light can slightly sprinkle with lemon juice, sprinkle with fresh herbs - basil, cilantro, green onions, mint.
The benefits of lentils
Lentils is an excellent remedy that relieves stress, depression and bad mood, strengthens the immune system. In addition, it positively affects the work of the heart.
This product is simply necessary for women, mainly pregnant. After all, it contains 90% of the daily norm of such a substance as folic acid. Lentils are also able to improve the activity of the gastrointestinal tract due to soluble fiber.
With three kinds of cabbage
This diet soup is indispensable for any diet, as it is low-calorie, well nourishes and contains a lot of protein (the building material of our muscles) and fiber. It does not require special knowledge in cooking. You need to take:
- 100 g of cauliflower;
- 100 g broccoli;
- a glass of beans;
- 100 g Brussels sprouts;
- 4 glasses of water;
- one leek (white part);
- 1 tbsp. l olive oil;
- salt;
- spices (paprika, cloves, dried ginger, ground red pepper).
Cooking process:
- Send olive oil, washed lentils, vegetables and spices to the pan.
- Fill everything with water and put on a small fire.
- Cook for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- At the end, salt and chop the blender.
Serve the finished soup to the table. By the way, if you wish, you can add cream to it, but then it will no longer be dietary. Enjoy your meal!