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
- 1 onion chopped (about 1 cup)
- 2 carrots chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 stalk celery with leaves chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 ½ teaspoons coriander
- 1 ½ teaspoons cumin
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes or 2 teaspoons fresh jalapeno, minced
- ¼ cup brown rice
- ½ cup lentils
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tomato chopped (about 1 cup, or 1/2 can of 15-ounce can diced tomatoes)
- ½ cup cilantro chopped
- 4 cups spinach leaves loosely packed
- ¼ cup fresh mint chopped
- juice of 1 lemon
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
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, red pepper flakes, and tomato. Then add lentils sand brown rice . Stir to combine, then pour in the vegetable broth .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 a little more broth or water until you’ve reached your soup sweet spot.
- Just before serving, add spinach by the handful. Stir in spinach leaves and cook until they wilt but are still bright green, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in cilantro, mint and lemon juice. Taste again for salt and pepper, and enjoy.
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.