The way my Teta did this was with Sorrel leaves from the garden, so you get the greens and the acidity:) they didn't have lemon back then so Sorrel and soumak was used.
I would like to let you know that another easy way, the Swiss card and lentils are added to a pot and cover with stock or just water and boil, I like to add spices and bay leaf. On separate pan sauté onions and when the lentils are cooked you add the onions with the oil (be carefull will splash if the oil is hot) you can add potatoes and carrots with lentils. For the dressing lemon juice or if you can handle raw garlic, you make a paste with garlic and coriander. Some add it at the last part of cooking or while serving it just depends on the preferences. Chili sauce is recommended, it gives it depth and flavor specially with cold and flu. I am Lebanese.
If you don't want the soup to turn into glue and taste toxic, parboil the lentils and potatoes in a separate pot, then throw away the water. Strain and then add to the chicken stock & veggies.
Today i prepared this recipe for lunch, it was delicius, i just added 100g more of lentils to pump up the protein content and there were no downsides. On a side note; some brands of stock cubes are vegan even if they do not say it on the package, even the ones that say chicken or beef, so i was able to made it vegan even using chicken stock. Ty for the recipe.
@@Lakshmi-uw7xf it depends on your country, in mine, a local yet widely available brand doesnt use animal products in any of their stocks. If its not the case in your voubtry, you could always try to make your own powdered stock, its a dried spice mix, there are a ton of recipes on the internet and it last forever.
Made this for dinner tonight with spinach instead of chard. Served with lightly toasted pita brushed with olive oil and a dash of hot sauce. It was delicious and perfectly satisfies a craving I have frequently. Will be making it regularly. Thank you!
I'm obviously not sure, but it looks pretty much like a collard green to me with a softer, red stem, so I think that might work as a suitable replacement as well.
Definitely a replacement but not traditional. Kale isn’t readily available in Lebanon but Chard is. My grandmother gave me the recipe. It’s almost identical to this but she didn’t use the carrot. She doubled the potato. Also, when adding the lemon juice, 3-4 mashed fresh garlic can go in too, but don’t cook it much after adding.
really freshens up a soup too. I think thats why it became so popular: veggies like chard will last through the winter but can get a stale or bitter flavor and get tough, you can combat the toughness by cooking longer but that makes them taste less fresh as well. Adding lemon juice or a bit of vinegar makes the veggies taste fresher.
I absolutely love how you make these videos. Very detailed and lovely information for a new cook like me! Thank you, thank you!! The soup looks amazing. Can’t wait to try it!
Going to make this tonight :) For skimming the scum off of the top, I've discovered that if you use a fine sieve (such as one for tea) you can remove the scrum without taking out the liquid. Just thought I'd share. Thanks for the recipe, loved the red lentil soup btw!
@@Trund27I bought an oil skimmer for less than $10 USD and that thing works like magic. It easily scoops up all the scum (coagulated proteins, so just unsightly but not harmful or even bad tasting) and oil that floats to the surface. I don’t usually buy gadgets that only do one thing, but this skimmer works so well that I’m really glad I bought it.
I made this and it is awesome. I just fried before some chicken wings and then veggies, so the chicken stock made itself during the cooking process. I also added a bit curcuma powder and cayenne pepper. made it with swiss chard and baby spinach. thank you! shokran awi❤
Wow, apparently a variant of this is universal in mediterranean countries. I have seen an almost identical recipe in my grandfather's cookbook, only difference was it had about 2 spoonfuls of tomato paste and spiced beef sausage.
Lentils are only beaten out by wheat (and even then by only a few centuries) as the oldest cultivar, we have lentil soup recipes from Uruk (ancient mesopotamia). It makes sense that every country near the fertile crescent has a soup like this.
@@jaspervanheycop9722 outside of the fertile crescent too. I once read an ancient Greek recipe that was similar (even had lemon juice) and a similar ancient Roman version with vinegar.
We are eally emjoying your channel. Excellent instructions & presentation. Learning about cuisine & culture , cooking these recipes with my kids. Always delicious. Thank you so much.🤗❤
I thought you rinsed beans and lentils in order to remove dirt and dust leftover from machine harvesting. No joke, I sometimes find bits of dried clay and tiny rocks in my dried legumes.
Seems to depend on where you live since I know people in the US who've never found dirt or rocks (but for decades now we've had machines that can remove them with a near 100% success rate) but I've known people who've come across them outside the US. Also seems far less common when you buy in sealed plastic bags, I've known people in the US wo've found rocks but those were in bulk (loose lentils shipped in giant bags or barrels and sold by the pound).
@@suzannesimmons9603 Without rinsing, quinoa will sometimes taste 'soapy' due to natural saponins that coat the grains. (Not dangerous, but not tasty either.) Dry beans & lentils need 'sorting' (aka inspection) to make sure no tiny rocks or other detritus end up in your soup. Yes, it's a pain, but better than the kind you get from a cracked tooth
You ALWAYS RINSE YOUR GRAINS WHERE POSSIBLE. rinse your grits, oatmeal, rice, ALL pulses. AND SIFT EVERYTHING i found glass shards in my sugar, plastic shards in my flour,
0:35 you have to soak them to reduce the gas, par boiling and discarding the liquid also works. With split lentils the oligosaccharide and raffinose sugar washes out pretty quickly just with a quick rinse but with whole lentils it takes longer requiring a soak or boil to get those saccharides to leach out. It's those indegestible saccharides that cause the gas since we cant digest it but the microbes in out intestines can, and they produce the gas as a waste product during their digestion. Also, fun fact: your bean/lentil farts aren't from you butt rather the microbes in your digestive system each creating microscopic farts.
This looks delicious. I am going to make this later this week. I may throw in either some acorn squash or butternut squash as well or in place of the potato
I make a very similar soup to this on a regular basis. I realised after the first time I made it that if I put the lemon in whilst cooking, that if I have any leftovers, they will be very bitter. Inedibly so. So I add lemon to each individual bowl when I serve it and it's delicious. And the compost heap only gets fed the veg trimmings - and not my leftover soup!
Is it possible that lemon seeds are falling into your soup? Lemon seeds are incredibly bitter (taste one!) and as they infuse in the soup over time, they turn it horrendously bad. If you plan on storing the soup, don't let the seeds get into it
@@bellenesatan Or maybe the oil from the skin I was thinking? When I put a slice of lemon in water it becomes bitter later, but not when I just put juice. Thank you for your suggestion ☺️
Looks great!! Thank you for this video. Question, does it make a big deal for the taste if I leave the potato and carrots unpeeled? I don’t like peeling them because most of the nutrients is in the skin
Dal is so freaking epic. Such a depth of flavour and pleasurable side effects, assuming you're able to be alone for a while after. I have no wife or boyfriend so I can eat whatever I want
Never make the mistake of eating a ton of lentils the same day or day before you plan on going to the gym. I had a ton of leftover lentil soup from a family dinner and ended up eating 2 lentil meals in a row and then weight lifting not much later and lifting that weight created enough pressure that I'm surprised I didnt blow my shorts clean off. I cant be entirely certain but I think my feet left the ground momentarily.
@@arthas640 🤣🤣🤣 My family had a problem with beans too. I began soaking all my beans overnight in water mixed with about a spoonful of sourdough starter. Problem solved! The sourdough takes care of the antinutrient part of the bean so that it becomes more digestible-so no more gas. 😊
ffffffffffffff, I mixed up tbs and tsp when I wrote it into my recipe system. Got too much cumin before I noticed ... then salt for another reason. It was eatable and I liked the concept so I will make this again though.
We tried it out today and I must admit it wasn't a thrilling experience. I thought the lemon just eliminated all the other flavours and it left us with a pot of lemon-y water. Do you have any suggestions what we could do differently, maybe cut the liquid amount in half? Thank you nevertheless for the recipe
Could it be that the cumin you used was old or weak? Basically the flavour comes mostly from the chard, lentils, cumin, then the lemon. Maybe it just wasn't as flavorful as you were expecting, it is a light soup after all. I've got a few strong tasting soups if that's more your style. Lentil soup, Harira, Libyan soup...
@@MiddleEats The cumin is fine I think. I use it a lot. The lemon murdered the lentil taste, maybe those were just too sour. Your red lentil soup I made a few times already, that was always great! Thank you for the reply. I will give harira and the libyan soup a spin next time
I think I see the issue. In the middle-east, lemons are more ripened and when sold they have a sweeter fruitier taste, nothing unlike the pure-acid of western commercial lemons. If you can't get ripened lemons in your area, you may try this recipe again with a blend of orange and lemon or lime juice instead. That's how I personally enjoy it.
@@mimoleta its a joke btw, the fact every one is watching should be obvious how big the pieces are, and if somebody doesn't understand still, they can likely find 1000 videos on cutting technics
Sounds like a good summer soup recipe! Question for you: would you recommend adding the swiss chard leaves after turning off the heat? I'd think that's a good way to prevent overcooking but I'm unsure if the remaining heat in the soup is adequate to cook it.
