Jenny’s Secret Carrot and Red Lentil Soup (25 Min, Vegetarian)
- Updated on Jul 14, 2014
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The Burger Issue
It’s an old story, we’ve all been there before; long day at work, the last hour comes, so does another, and suddenly you’re hungry – really bloody hungry.
On the way home is a McDonalds, so you treat yourself to two or maybe even three €1 burgers. They taste alright, they fill you up a bit.
It wont hurt, you tell yourself. But it probably will. Your body and your wallet. It’s certainly not a long term solution to a hungry belly anyway.
I needed to end this vicious cycle – and that’s where Jenny came in. I’ll always thank her for this – her carrot and lentil soup.
Jenny: “No, it’s really so simple to make.”
At first I “only” appreciated the taste, thinking that I couldn’t possibly make it myself because it tasted so good, and I’m crap at cooking. Always have been.
But I asked for the ingredients and cooking time anyway. 5 ingredients, 25 minutes. Hmmm…easier than I thought.
I tried it myself a few days later, preparing for the classic “this takes much longer and tastes much worse” result. But no, it was just as good as Jenny’s version.
I did it again, it worked again. As it has done every time since.
To see if I wasn’t just assuming that it actually made sense to swap some cheeseburgers for the soup (assumption is the brother of all fuck ups after all) I investigated.
Turns out the soup is healthier than pretty much anything I’d ever eaten before..
Health Benefits – Carrot and Red Lentil Soup
The soup (red lentils and carrots) contains a lot of fiber, which is great, because most people eat less than 50% of the daily recommended amount (1).
Fiber has some great benefits: it decreases the risk of diabetes, heart attacks and other stuff (2).Fiber actually makes you feel full too – you won’t be hankering after any other food for a while.
Can you say the same for a burger?
You’re less hungry throughout the day. You eat less. You lose weight (3). That’s a win-win in my book.
And finally one bowl contains around 30g of protein. That’s better than a couple of burgers. If I went to the gym, I’d be laughing!
Beginning of the End of the Burger Issue
Jenny’s red lentil soup is a fantastic step towards a healthier life with less burgers. And it’s a tasty one too.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 2 carrot
- 1 onion
- 4 cup vegetable broth
- ¾ cup low fat Greek Yogurt
- ¾ cup red lentils, dried
Optional:
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic (1 clove = ½ tsp dried)
Instructions
- Get a pot, pop it on a low heat and add the olive oil.1 tsp olive oil
- Cut the carrots, onion and grate the garlic.2 carrot, 1 onion, 1 clove garlic
- Throw them in the pot, cook for a minute or two and chuck the lentils in after.¾ cup red lentils, dried
- Stir a little until the lentils are covered with oil (they open their pores which then tastes better).
- Add the vegetable broth.4 cup vegetable broth
- Let the soup simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the lemon juice.1 tbsp lemon juice
- Blend it with a hand blender if available, don't worry if you cant.
- Stir in the yogurt.¾ cup low fat Greek Yogurt
- Ready (eat with bread, add your favourite herbs for variety, and some more yogurt or sour cream).
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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49 comments
Hi! I’m on a dairy free diet. What could I replace the yogurt with to make this soup? Looks delicious!
Hi Michelle! I’ve also recently started swapping out yogurt for non dairy, and I usually go a soy yog of some sort. I often go for Alpro, it’s pretty tasty! You could also skip out the yogurt and go for an oil instead – pumpkin, for example. I hope that helps!
Wow. Simply amazing and so easy to make 🙂 What a great idea to put lentils in a soup! Much more filling and it adds a great texture to it! I added one small sweet potatoe that I had left in the fridge and a tea spoon of cumin and it tastes great! Looks like I’m going to make this often! Thank you so much 🙂
Hello! I started your 7 day high protein diet, and today i made this soup. It’s fantastic, but there was 1,5 liters of soup and thats two portions? Do i really eat 0,75 liters of soup one time?
I really like your website, thanks for that!!
Hi KaisaFIN,
sorry for the slow reply! It was a bit hectic around here the last couple of days (I hope Dave and Kat don’t mind me saying that their second baby arrived just last week!). About the soup: you can definitely make it 3 servings, that would surely be better than going for 0,75 liters of soup at once! Btw it’s a very freezer friendly recipe. Thanks a ton for giving our high protein meal plan a shot and we hope it’s going well!
I make my soup in a slow cooker. Dump all the ingredients into it in the morning then blend it that night. Put leftovers in fridge or freezer. Super easy and the house smells divine.
That indeed sounds super easy to do!! Will have to try it out with my instant pot. That has a slow cooker function as far as I remember 🙂
I just made thus wuth a few adjustments and it’s amazing!
I didn’t have any lemon, so I added a tomato since that’s a bit sour too. And I made it with canned lentils, which I added after 15 minutes instead since they don’t need to be cooked. Threw in some random spices to complete it.
Only downside is the amount of salt.
Really glad to hear you enjoyed it! It was one of our first recipes and I still love it :). The tomato was a good idea, I bet it worked a treat. Yes, the canned stuff does usually tend to be higher in salt – if anybody else is wondering about that then a low-sodium stock would be a great alternative (in fact they’re pretty good to use anyway!).
Just tried this but added in a celery stalk I had knocking around and just chucked in water randomly. Also used 4 heaped dessert spoons of yoghurt which I think was about half a cup. Result was tasty and filling, but looked like smooth thin corn chowder and very yoghurty.
Very nice and restau styled with urfa chili flakes or za’atar (I’m not being a food snob – my gf keeps buying exotic spices and then not knowing what to do with them, so am trying to use them up).
For a vegan Turkish soup, replace the yoghurt with canned tomatoes and add ground cumin (I grind it in a pestle and mortar which is quick, you will have to use more if you buy ready ground), mint if you have it and chili if you like it spicy.
Hi Helen!
Hahaa, but I think it’s very cool to have some exotic spices stashed up at home. Fun to play around with them 🙂
Thanks for the tip to make it vegan! Cumin is THE BEST!!!
Yay, Jenny and yay, you! McDonald’s is nasty and lentils are not. That soup looks amazing.
hahaha, thanks for the props, Linda! 😀