In my quest to like lentils, I’ve tried lentil casserole, lentil tacos, and a version of lentil “sloppy joes” that someone promised I would like (I didn’t). Then I remembered a lentil soup I’d had years ago at a friend’s house and asked for the recipe. At last! A lentil recipe I really, truly love.
I like to serve soup with homemade bread or rolls, especially when I can let my bread machine do all the hard stuff. So I’m also including my family’s current favorite, a recipe I got from my sister-in-law for Oatmeal Yogurt Bread.
Make a batch of this soup and a loaf of this bread and you’ve got two easy, hearty (but healthy) meals perfect for cold weather.
Turkish Wedding Soup
4 T. olive oil
2 onions finely chopped (I puree them in a mini food-chopper until they’re smooth)
1 t. paprika
1 cup red lentils
1/2 cup bulgur (at my store, this is stocked right next to the red lentils in the “ethnic cuisine” aisle)
2 T. tomato paste
8 cups vegetable stock
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 lemon
Saute onions in olive oil. Add paprika, lentils, bulgur, and tomato paste. Add stock and cayenne pepper and cook about an hour. Squeeze a lemon wedge into each bowl before serving.
| Oatmeal Yogurt Bread |
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup very hot water
- 3/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1 T. butter
- 2 T. sugar
- 1 t. salt
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1/4 cup oat bran (I use Bob’s Red Mills, which is found at my grocery store alongside the flaxseed)
- 1 2/3 cup flour
- 1-1/2 t. yeast
- Put the oats in your bread machine’s bread pan.
- Add the hot water, stir, and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Put remaining ingredients in bread machine pan in the order they are listed (with a spoon, make a little well in the flour for the yeast).
- Set machine on the dough setting.
- When done, restart dough cycle and allow the machine to “punch” down your dough for about 30 seconds.
- Turn machine off and take out the dough.
- Shape it into rolls or a loaf and place on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal.
- Brush the tops of the rolls or loaf with butter or beaten egg white. (To get fancy, crush up some oats and sprinkle on the tops of the bread.)
- Make slits in the tops of the rolls or loaf.
- Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise about an hour.
- Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown (roughly 20 minutes for rolls, 30-45 minutes for a loaf).
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can’t wait to try both of these!!
Hi Sally, I am also a “recovering picky eater” with an aversion to beans and lentils! I’ve written about this on my blog, too…lentil soup is SUCH a great “gateway” dish to legumes…other successes for me have been garbanzo burgers and falafel, and I have also found I can deal with pinto beans if they are mashed up in taco meat
. Btw, found your blog through links to your soccer snacks posts as I begin to take on the food issues my daughter’s preschool…thanks for the inspiration and confirmation that I’m not the only crazy one out there that doesn’t see why kids need to eat junk every day!
Thanks Alissa! I like the idea of mashing up pinto beans–I can totally do mashed up beans (like hummus and falafel), it’s the whole-bean texture I have issues with. Would love to hear more about what you’re doing at your daughter’s preschool!
Thanks Lindsay. Let me know how it goes!
Hi Sally, so far I’m pretty much running into brick walls at my daughter’s school
Only positive change is eliminating flavored yogurt and yogurt drinks as a snack option for the weekly shabbat celebration, but I didn’t even succeed when requesting that teachers can’t bring in cupcakes for their OWN birthdays (nevermind all the cupcakes the kids bring in). If you have any advice I am totally open – my oldest just turned 3 so I’m a newbie at all this stuff!
Made this last night and the family LOVED it. (It was easy too!)
Thanks
Dina
So glad to hear it! It’s become one of our favorites (though Sam is still not sold…huge shocker, I know).
Yum! I can’t wait to make these!
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