A soup that I crave year round, but crave in these quiet, cozy weeks between holidays most of all. It’s healthy, hearty, and bright. Basically it’s fall sunshine in a bowl.
Red lentil soup
Olive oil 1 white onion, diced 2 carrots, diced 5 cloves minced garlic 8 cups veggie or chicken stock 2 cups red lentils 1 cup corn 2 teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon curry powder zest and juice of 1 lemon salt and freshly-cracked black pepper, to taste.
Heat oil in a Dutch oven or other soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrots and sauté until the onions are soft and translucent. Add garlic and sauté for 1 more minute or so, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the stock, lentils, corn, cumin, curry powder. Continue cooking until the soup reaches a simmer. Then cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are completely tender.
At this point, you can either blend the soup or not. I always do using an immersion blender, but you could use a regular blender too. Or just eat it as is! All equally yum.
Next, stir in the lemon zest and juice until combined. Taste and season the soup with a generous pinch or two of salt (I prefer Kosher) and black pepper.
Serve with a squeeze of lemon, grind of pepper, sprinkling of shaved warm, and a couple slices of fresh sourdough.
I know, I know. It’s only mid-August, but once school starts, it’s basically soup season, right? I think part of these feelings must stem from how absolutely frigid they keep my school library. I need a warm little meal packed from home on my lunch break while wrapped in a cozy sweater more than ever. Maybe if I were still out in the wild world, and not tucked away in my windowless, season-less arctic tundra of a library, I’d be munching on tomato sandwiches, lettuce wraps, and peaches with burrata cheese and sprigs of basil as most are wont to do in mid-August. I used to be a Children’s Librarian at an amazing public library down here and one of my co-workers would pack herself soup for lunch no matter the season and I kind of love that. Feels very librarian-y. I’m not so extreme as to cut all other meals out of my life once school starts, but I do like making soup on the weekends. It’s one of those foods that tastes even better the next day, and you know I’ve been thinking about getting my sourdough starter revived too. There’s nothing that goes together so well as soup and a crusty boule of sourdough. I thought I would share some of my favorite soups and a few that I’m thinking of trying this season just in case you are in the mood for soup too.
Lemon-y Lentil Soup. One of my all time favorites. Make SURE you get red lentils, They break down in such a way that makes this soup so thick and delightful. Brown and green lentils keep their form too much for this one.
Classic Chili. We make our first batch of chili a big event. It’s an opening day of football tradition. Don’t skip the fixings. My husband makes the BEST chili and I’ll have to get him to type it up one of these days, but this one looks pretty similar. We always top with cheddar cheese, red onion diced tiny, corn chips, and sometimes sour cream if it’s a spicy batch.
Pasta e Fagioli. Ok you guys, I have a recipe that I’ve always used for this (my husband I took a cooking class in our early days of marriage and the chef taught us how to make this soup!), but early in my instagram days an Italian girl messaged me that what I was making was so far from a true Pasta e Fagioli that it couldn’t even be called that. And then she sent me a link to this very complicated looking recipe, and so I’ve never talked about this soup again on my account. Ha! Maybe I’ll get the courage to share my recipe again, but for now – try the one I’m linking now. It looks simple and yummy.
Country Potato Soup. (Pictured above) Obviously this is the magnolia recipe from Joanna Gaines and it’s soooo good. I dream about it every year when the 70’s hit.
Street Corn Chowder. I just made this over the weekend, and it’s as good as I remember. You can use frozen corn instead of corn on the cob and this makes it a year round option.
Soups I want to make this Fall:
Pumpkin Soup – Last year I made soup in a pumpkin and you better believe I’m doing it again.
Tell me your favorite soup for soup season in the comments! I’m going to make it a season of soup!! And if you too are making it a soup season – this is our favorite dutch oven. I use it for sourdough and every soup we make! In other cozy news. I want this, this and this.
The Metroka Family 