Left Over Remix Recipe: Lentil Soup

Lentil Soup with Hummus Leftovers

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Tbs aniseed
• 2 large onions sliced
• 1/4 lb bacon
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 1 cup red lentils
• 4 pears sliced
  
• 2 tsp coriander
  
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp salt
  
• ~1 cup hummus or 1 can garbanzo beans and 2 Tbs tahini
• 1/2 c. orange juice
• juice of two lemons
• 1/4 c. chopped parsley

Optional:

• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 Tbl pomegranate syrup or brown sugar for sweetener.

Heat oil over medium high heat until slightly smoking. Turn down burner to low and add aniseed to toast. When seeds begin to turn brownish color, add onions. Stir occasionally to keep from burning but allow onions to caramelize into a nice brown color.


Caramelized onion with bacon and toasted aniseed.

In a separate fry pan, saute up bacon until crispy and drain grease. In a soup pot, add to onions: bacon, chicken stock, pears, lentils, coriander, cumin and salt. Allow to cook over low for 30-45 minutes until lentils are falling apart and pear has disintegrated. If pear still is slightly whole, take a fork and break apart.

Once lentils are cooked and dd hummus, stirring to mix. If you don't have any hummus, you can add a can of garbanzo beans and tahini. Add orange juice and lemon juice to add a tart citrus flavor. Add salt to taste and fresh chopped parsley right before serving. For optional taste you can add milk which will give the soup a creamier flavor and/or Pomegranate syrup or other sweetener according to taste. Garnish with yogurt, preferably labna and parsley

This recipe is based off the premise of a simple lentil soup recipe which is just lentils, onions, stock, and lemon. A lot of the ingredients I used in this recipe because I had them around the house, such as the orange juice and the pomegranate syrup. I added milk because I added too much salt and needed to tone down the taste.

I always say my ingredients are approximations, but I don't want this to scare anyone off from trying my recipes. I add this disclaimer as an attempt to empower you to understand if you don't have one or two of these ingredients its OK. Experimenting with substitutions is a great way to explore food and make a recipe your own by changing it slightly to match your taste. Keep tasting your food as you go along and augment it to whatever you may need: if its bland, add some spice, if its flat, add some body like more stock of bullion, if you accidentally added too much salt, add a bit of cream to tone it down. Just have fun and trust your own tastes.