Greek Red Lentil Soup Recipe from The Mediterranean Dish

Okay, so here's the deal. I'm a big souper. You know what a souper is? A souper is a person who eats soup all year round. That's me. I eat soup all year round. And I love lentil soup and today we're gonna jazz it up Greek style. What's up guys? I'm Suzy with TheMediterraneanDish.com. I'm all about easy, wholesome recipes with big Mediterranean flavors. Today we are exploring a super Mediterranean ingredient, red lentils. Now, if you have not worked with red lentils, this easy, super delicious Greek red lentil soup is your ticket. It is a one-pot hearty dinner for any night of the week. And you know what? It's budget-friendly, so why not give it a try? Now, we of course are working with the star of the show here, red lentils. These are not super big as far as legumes go. They don't need to be soaked overnight. All I did was just give them a quick rinse. That's why I love red lentils. Now we've got onions, garlic, carrots, a little bit of tomato juice, which really amps up the flavor, brings that umami. And then I have some Greek spices, oregano, rosemary, and then a hint of cumin. Let's head to the stove and put this whole party together in one big pot. Lentil party is about to go down right in this pot, y'all. We're gonna go in with early harvest extra virgin olive oil, about three tablespoons or so. By the way, this olive oil is straight from Greece and you can find it on themediterraneandish.com. Just hit the shop tab when you get there. Let this go until it's shimmery, but do not let it smoke. That's very important for olive oil. Onions, every little bit. Some carrots, building all the flavor right away. And some garlic. We'll get this party going. All right, this is looking so good. All the aroma. Let's add some more flavors, you guys. How about some oregano, some cumin, some piney rosemary. All the Greek going on right here, you guys. Oregano, cumin, rosemary. These are such amazing Greek flavors. Let's give this a quick toss about to build that flavor already. Bay leaves, crushed tomatoes. And I'll tell you what, you guys, this adds a lot of umami and gives a good color to our red lentil soup. And broth. And then from here, the star of the show, our red lentils. So these have been rinsed already, remember? So they just go right in from here. These are super small, so they cook pretty quickly, like about 15-20 minutes at the most. And you'll have your soup. I do usually add a hint of chili pepper, so we'll do that right here. And then we'll hit it up with salt and pepper. And that's about it. We'll bring this party to a boil and then we'll let it simmer until it's nice and delicious. Oh yeah, nice and thick and hearty. Oh my gosh, you guys, it smells so good in here. If you like it just the way it is, nice and chunky, then by all means. I usually just have it this way, but for today I'm going to show you how to blend it up a little bit so that it's nice and smooth. Notice I turned off the heat or you can remove the whole thing altogether. Now if you have the time, I highly recommend that you let the soup cool before you put something in it, but I'm gonna be brave and try it this way. Immersion blender or stick blender. We're gonna put this in. And if this was higher, that would probably be a good idea for an immersion blender, but we'll just... Oh yeah, that looks nice and smooth and beautiful. Look at this color, you guys. This is that red tomato base that I added earlier. It gave the soup a nice orange-y look as opposed to like that meh brown. Who likes meh brown? Nobody. All right. Yes, I smell some Greek goodness going on. We will add some lemon juice and some lemon zest to kind of bring everything together, brighten this soup up, and just pull all the flavors. Citrus does a whole lot to your soup, you guys, so don't miss this little bit here. And now we just do a little bit of lemon juice, actually a lot of lemon juice, and some fresh parsley. Final, final touch. Just a rough chop, nothing special. Watch your fingers. That smells great. Add a little freshness to this warm party. Oh my goodness, we are in business for lunch, you guys. Now you can absolutely serve this Greek red lentil soup vegan completely or do like they do over at the Greek islands and add a healthy bit of creamy Greek feta cheese. I'm super excited for you to try this easy Greek red lentil soup, you guys. Grab the recipe over on TheMediterraneanDish.com and if you're interested in our Greek olive oils and spices, those are also available on TheMediterraneanDish.com. Just hit the shop tab when you get there and please don't forget to subscribe. Follow this channel for more delicious videos. Give me likes, comments. I love to answer your questions and I will see you later. Ciao!