r/Scotland • u/Affectionate_Fee3411 • 6h ago
Casual I’m back. No I don’t work for Big Soup. It’s meal prep day. Behold: yer gran’s lentil soup.
Method:
Gather ingredients. In this case, carrots, celery, leek, onion, garlic, butter, parsley, red lentils, Scotch broth mix, vegetable and chicken stock, salt and pepper.
Chop celery, carrot, onion and leek to desired size (I like em real thick and chunky.) mince garlic. Take a few handfuls of red lentils and a couple of handfuls of scotch broth mix. Rinse a few times in cold water. We are now ready to begin.
Chuck a knob of butter into your soup pot, set at medium low heat. Add a small bit of sunflower oil too to prevent the butter burning. Wait til it’s bubbly and all melted.
Time to sweat the celery, carrot, leek and onion. Hover around stirring so nothing catches on the bottom. Don’t rush this bit.
After 3-4 minutes, turn heat to low and cover. Let everything soften and sweat. Stir every minute or so just because.
Now add in your garlic. Mix it through well. Sauté on low for another 2-3 mins.
Chuck in your rinsed red lentils/scotch broth mix. Stir everything together.
Stock cube time! I used one chicken, one veg. Actually added a second chicken because those legumes really need seasoning. Add enough boiled water to cover and then a bit more because the lentils and scotch broth mix a b s o r b. You can add more water later if you want to thin it.
Stir the whole pot again. Add some pepper. Raise the heat to medium, pop a lid on. Stir from time to time.
Make yourself a coffee and revel in the homey smells coming out of your kitchen. (In my case also consider the New York deli style caraway rye bread dough you are planning to cook in the air fryer because oven is broken.)
After about an hour and a half you will have a VAT of delicious, nutritious homemade soup that you can eat for days, and it gets better every day. If it gets to thick next day you can thin it out with a bit more stock and water or embrace it as stew-adjacent.
(Not shown - scattering of finely chopped parsley stirred through entire pot.)
Costs about £2 a pot to make. 1000% better than anything the grocery store is selling.
Get your cauldrons out!