Lentil and Brown Rice Soup With Lemon and Mint
Light, brothy soups have their place. It’s called spring. Come winter, it’s time for something with soothing substance and serious nourishment, like this beany, grainy soup rich with vegetables and spiked with lemon and mint.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 onions chopped
- 2 carrots chopped
- 1 stalk celery with leaves chopped
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes or 2 teaspoons fresh jalapeno, minced
- ¾ cup brown rice
- ¾ cup lentils
- 4 to 5 cups vegetable broth
- 2 tomatoes chopped (or 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes)
- ½ cup flat-leaf parsley chopped
- ½ cup fresh mint chopped
- juice of 1 lemon
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- 4 cups spinach leaves loosely packed
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add minced garlic and chopped onions, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring, until vegetables start to soften and become burnished from the oil, about 5 to 8 minutes.
- Stir in coriander, cumin, allspice and pepper flakes or minced jalapeno. Then add brown rice and lentils. Stir to combine, then pour in 4 cups of vegetable broth and the tomatoes.
- Stir and bring to a boil.
- Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 45 minutes, or until soup has thickened a great deal and lentils and brown rice are tender. Season with salt and pepper and taste till you get it as you like it. If soup is too thick for you, adjust by adding some or all of the remaining cup of broth until you’ve reached your soup sweet spot.
- Just before serving, stir in lemon juice, mint and parsley. Taste again for salt and pepper.
- Add spinach by the handful. Stir in spinach leaves and cook until they wilt but are still bright green, about 5 minutes.
Notes
Keeps covered and refrigerated for several days, and like many soups and stews, the flavor deepens and improves over time. We should all be so lucky.