Chicken and Green Lentil Soup
A tasty, fragrant, and healthy soup with green lentils! We don't see lentil dishes on the menu nearly often enough — and that's a shame, because they're both good for you and delicious. By adding different spices, you can dial in exactly the flavor you love most. Experiment!
Cooking method
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Step 1:
Get the ingredients ready. Wash and peel the vegetables, and pick over and rinse the lentils. For this soup I use green lentils (sometimes called "plate" lentils), and I don't soak them ahead of time. Put the chicken drumsticks in a pot of water, set it over the heat, and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam as it rises, lightly salt the water, and add the lentils. Bring back to a boil and skim again. Now cook over low heat, covered, for 1 hour.
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Step 2:
While the chicken and lentils cook, cut the carrot into thin sticks and sauté it in a skillet with a little vegetable oil.
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Step 3:
When the chicken is done, take it out and set it aside in a separate dish. I don't like leaving meat or chicken in the simmering soup — I always add it to the bowl right before serving. (I also weigh the cooked chicken so I can factor it into the calorie count.) Now make sure the lentils are nearly cooked, then add the diced potatoes and the carrot, adjust the salt, and cook over low heat for another 10 minutes.
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Step 4:
All that's left is to add the turmeric, cook the soup for another 10 minutes, then add the bay leaf. With the bay leaf in, let the soup gently simmer for just 5 minutes, then turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the soup rest a bit! When serving, don't forget to put sour cream on the table so everyone can stir some into their bowl. Enjoy!
- I make this tasty, fragrant soup two ways. The version shown today is the mild one. But if you add finely chopped onion to the carrot while sautéing, plus a couple of cloves of minced or pressed garlic along with the bay leaf, the soup turns out not just fragrant but spicy — and seriously delicious! And don't let the soup's unusual color throw you off — that's just the green lentils and turmeric at work! What matters is that it's very tasty and good for you.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Ripe potatoes - 80 kcal/100g
- Baked potatoes - 70 kcal/100g
- Mashed potatoes - 380 kcal/100g
- Boiled potatoes - 82 kcal/100g
- Potatoes in uniform - 74 kcal/100g
- Fried potatoes - 192 kcal/100g
- Carrots - 33 kcal/100g
- Dried carrots - 275 kcal/100g
- Boiled carrots - 25 kcal/100g
- Turmeric - 325 kcal/100g
- Bay leaf - 313 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Chicken legs - 158 kcal/100g
- Table salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Green lentils - 323 kcal/100g
