Last week, the Globe launched Winter Soup Club, a six-week newsletter that delivers soup recipes, tips, and more right to your e-mail inbox. If you haven’t signed up, read on for a taste of what you missed, and go to globe.com/wintersoupclub to receive upcoming installments.
Why devote an entire newsletter to soup? Simple: because it is the best food in the world. Soup can be a labor of love or a quick and easy weeknight meal, or both. It is as nutritious as you want it to be. It can be infinitely tailored to suit different diets, health concerns, and taste preferences. It is economical. It is the best way to use up everything lingering in the vegetable drawer. Waste not, want not — unless you want a second bowl of soup, in which case help yourself.
Soup was the first thing I learned to cook, and the first soup I made was lentil with spinach and lots of lemon. My mother gave me the recipe. I don’t know where she got it, and I have no record of the original. I still make some iteration of that soup today, from memory. It is similar to the soup in the recipe you’ll find below.
But: I don’t use shallots. My version has more canned tomatoes (regular, not fire roasted) and a few cloves of chopped garlic. I splash in some soy sauce, and instead of thyme and parsley, I use basil, oregano, a bay leaf, and sometimes cayenne. And, most important, I grate some lemon rind, sprinkle the bright yellow shreds into the pot, and add a generous squeeze of lemon juice. The brightness of the citrus offsets the earthy lentils and spinach. (I often use kale or chard instead, as soup is an excellent way to dispatch lingering greens.)
All of this illustrates why I love lentil soup so much, and why we’ve featured it in this first newsletter. A simple tweak of the seasonings and you’re eating dinner in an entirely different part of the world. Lentils cook quickly and are an excellent source of protein in a plant-based diet. (However, they also play very well with bacon, ham, and sausage.) And if you have lentils in the cupboard, you can always cook something nutritious and delicious. I dig brown lentils, but I tend to use quicker-cooking, less-firm red lentils even more often: with bulgur, mint, and Aleppo pepper; with butter, red wine, chicken stock, and parsley; and above all with Indian spices in dal, the second thing I learned to cook after lemon lentil spinach soup, at the knee of Madhur Jaffrey, one of my greatest early cooking teachers through her books.
How do you make lentil soup? Drop us a line to share your favorite version. If you make the recipe below, please let us know how you like it, and how you tweak it to make it your own.
Until next time, see you at the back burner, flame down low.
EASY, COZY LENTIL SOUP WITH SPINACH
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 shallots, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 medium carrots, thinly sliced
3 ribs celery, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 can (about 15 ounces) fire-roasted diced tomatoes or whole tomatoes, crushed in a bowl
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup brown or green lentils
½ bunch Swiss chard, stems trimmed, leaves coarsely chopped or 2 cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan (for serving)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. In a soup pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the shallots, onion, carrots, celery, and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, for 8 minutes, or until the vegetables are softened.
2. Add the tomatoes, thyme, parsley, and stock. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the lentils and lower the heat. Partially cover the pan and simmer the soup for 40 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.
3. Add the Swiss chard or spinach and simmer, partially covered, for 5 minutes more. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if you like. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
LISA YOCKELSON
Pair it with:
On the side: Crusty baguette or sourdough with butter. A simple green salad would also be nice, but it’s not necessary, thanks to the spinach.
To read: “Da Capo,” a poem about making lentil soup and starting over, by Jane Hirshfield (plus another recipe for lentil soup, this time with roasted chestnuts, from Eat This Poem)
Play list: “Lentil,” by Sia, written for a dog (yes, named Lentil) she had to leave behind in Australia (YouTube)
SOUP TIPS
For a lemony lentil soup, grate some lemon rind and add it to the pot, along with a few tablespoons of the lemon’s juice.
If you’ve got leftover cooked brown rice or farro in the fridge, you can stir some in toward the very end of the cooking time. The nutty flavor and chewy texture will be delicious here. The grains will expand in the liquid over time, so add more broth or a splash of water if you like.
Instead of thyme and parsley, try using cumin, coriander, and cayenne for a different flavor profile. Skip the cheese in this case; you can also leave out the spinach and throw in a generous handful of chopped cilantro instead, with more sprinkled on top for serving.
If you go the cumin-y route and have fresh ginger, grate some in when you’re cooking the vegetables in Step 1. That’s also a good time to chop and add any red, orange, or yellow bell peppers you might have hanging around.
In this week’s newsletter: Sheryl Julian teaches us how to turn canned beans into a hearty, warming vegetarian soup.
Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @devra_first.