Ev's Lentil Soup (greek - Fakess)

Total Time: 2 hrs 20 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 10
• 1 lb small dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
• 1/2 cup bulgur wheat (optional) or 1/2 cup pearl barley (optional)
• 2 large onions, minced
• 5 garlic cloves, quartered
• 4 medium carrots, grated fine
• 2 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 large bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt, to taste (or you can use 3 beef stock cubes with 1/2 tsp salt for this amount)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 1/2 quarts boiling water
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Recipe

• 1 in a large pot, cover lentils with boiling water and allow to boil for 10 minutes.
• 2 drain lentils of this ‘first boiling’ (greeks think that this process makes the lentils easier to digest – i prefer it).
• 3 put lentils back into pot.
• 4 add bulgar or barley (if using), onions, garlic, carrots, tomato paste, bay leaves, salt and pepper.
• 5 pour 2 ½ quarts of boiling water over lentils, bring to a boil.
• 6 when mixture boils, decrease temperature to leave the lentils cooking at a simmer and cook, covered, for 1 ½ hours.
• 7 add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and simmer ½ an hour longer.
• 8 taste.
• 9 if the lentils are still too firm to the bite, allow to cook until they are tender and soup has thickened (soup will continue to thicken as it cools).
• 10 if the soup is too thick, you can thin with a little hot water.
• 11 traditionally, we eat this soup with lots of kalamata olives, feta cheese and crusty bread.
• 12 i serve half the soup on one day and freeze the other half (it freezes beautifully) to serve on another day when i’m too busy to cook.
• 13 crockpot version: put all the ingredients except for olive oil and balsamic vinegar into your crockpot.
• 14 cook on low for 7 hours.
• 15 add olive oil and balsamic vinegar and cook a further 2 hours.
• 16 ev's notes: you can enrich this already delicious soup by making a couple of variations. add 1/2 lb of minced bacon, but cut back the olive oil to a couple of tablespoonfuls; or add 1 lb of sliced sausage, like kielbasa. again, cut back on the oil.
• 17 new note: (added dec. 27, 2004) i have taken to adding 1/2 cup bulgur wheat to this soup when i add all the other ingredients; it makes the soup more nutritionally complete if totally vegetarian, and really good and hearty; i strongly urge you try this version.
• 18 freezer note: this makes quite a lot of soup - definitely enough for 2 meals (plus a little extra for the super-hungry) for my family of 5. i have taken to freezing half the batch to provide me with a quick, nutritious dinner further on down the line when time is short and you don't want to resort to ordering inches just defrost in microwave, reheat well and serve.