I started my real food journey almost five years ago. My body was in need of a lot of healing at that time. I had eaten a very poor standard American diet full of processed foods for many years. When I began my journey I decided to become a vegan. I did well on my vegan diet. I lost 58 pounds, my skin cleared up and I felt healthy for the first time in my life.
Today I am no longer a vegan. I do still cook many of my favorite vegan dishes on a regular basis, though. One of my favorite vegan dishes is lentil soup. I would eat lentil soup almost every day when I first started my vegan diet.
I make this soup much more healthier than I use to. I use fresh ingredients (no cans) and I use sprouted lentils. Sprouting increases the nutrients of lentils and makes them easier to digest.
How To Sprout Lentils
Soak 2 cups of lentils in 4 cups of water. Allow lentils to soak for 6-8 hours (I usually do this overnight). Rinse the soaked lentils and place them in a jar. I like to use a sprouting lid on my jar. This makes sprouted a lot easier. Rinse the lentils every 6-8 hours. The lentils will begin to sprout during the first 24 hours of sprouting. Once lentils have sprouted you can keep them in the refrigerator to use in your recipes.
A Note About Broth
I prefer to use homemade broth because it is healthier and full of minerals. I highly recommend you use homemade chicken bone broth or mineral rich vegetable broth.
Spicy Sprouted Lentil Soup
Equipment:
1 medium to large size pot
food processor or blender
sharp knife for cutting veggies
Ingredients:
4 cups sprouted lentils
6 cups mineral rich vegetable broth or homemade bone broth
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 green chili or jalapeno pepper, chopped (add more or less according to your spicy preference)
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 medium carrot, diced or shredded
shredded raw cheese or pepper jack cheese (optional)
onions, chopped (optional)
salsa (optional)
sour cream (optional)
avocado (optional)
Instructions:
- Pour broth, lentils and seasonings in a medium size pot.
- Bring to a boil and simmer until lentils are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Remove 2 cups of lentils and puree them in food processor or blender. Add lentil puree back to soup. Add diced carrots and bell pepper to soup.
- Continue to cook until veggies are tender, about 20 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves before serving.
- Top each bowl with your favorite toppings. Serve with Baked Coconut Oil Corn Tortilla Chips and a slice of lime.
Spicy Sprouted Lentil Soup
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
Equipment Needed
- 1 medium to large size pot
- food processor or blender
- sharp knife for cutting veggies
Ingredients
- 4 cups sprouted lentils
- 6 cups mineral rich vegetable broth (recipe coming soon!) or homemade bone broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
- 1 green chili or jalapeno pepper, chopped (add more or less according to your spicy preference)
- 1 small red bell pepper, diced
- 1 medium carrot, diced or shredded
Toppings (optional)
- shredded raw cheese or pepper jack cheese
- onions, chopped
- salsa
- sour cream
- avocado
Instructions
- Pour broth, lentils and seasonings in a medium size pot.
- Bring to a boil and simmer until lentils are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Remove 2 cups of lentils and puree them in food processor or blender. Add lentil puree back to soup. Add diced carrots and bell pepper to soup.
- Continue to cook until veggies are tender, about 20 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves before serving.
- Top each bowl with your favorite toppings. Serve with Baked Coconut Oil Corn Tortilla Chips and a slice of lime.
That looks yummy. Just one question: when you cook the sprouts… aren’t you “killing” the nutrients and benefits that you obtained from sprouting them? I’m asking out of ignorance, just in case ☺
Go vegan! s2
Spicy food is my jam. Thank you for sharing your soup recipe.
I am planning to eat healthy and your blog is helping me in a great deal.
Are you supposed to add the green chilies or jalapeno at the same time as the carrots and bell pepper? It isn’t specified in the recipe, so is that right?
You cane even those sprouted lentils raw! Yummy!
The soup is delicious! Thanks for sharing!
I only recently discovered and fell in love with sprouted lentils. I must try this soup soon!
Pinned, shared on Facebook and adding to my MMM Must-Make-Monday series 🙂
This sounds perfect on a chilly day like today! Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party last week! have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂 I hope that you’ll join us this week! Domata will be sponsoring our party! They will be giving away a box of each of their gluten free products: Recipe Ready Flour, Seasoned Flour, and Pizza Crust Mix. Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
This looks delicious I love soups so much! and lentils two of my favs ..yum. I look forward to seeing your homemade veggie broth
This is definately on my list next week, hopefully “Sandy” will be kind and we’ll have still power. I love lentils in particular in cold weather, I’ve never heard you could cook them sprouted, lol. I do love sprouted lentils in salads in summer, so this will be an experiment for me since your recipe has some different ingredients than I am used to. – I am wondering if you have tried sprouted mungo beans, somewhere I saw this and can’t find it. Btw, I recently ordered Tropical Traditions coconut oil and shredded coconut for milk making, Im a exited, I still have Nutiva cocon. oil left but Im curious about this brand as many people on FB praise it. Happy Blogging! :- D
This sounds delicious and I have a jar full of sprouted lentils in my fridge right now, I guess I know what I’m having for dinner tonight! 🙂 Thanks Coconut mama!
I just made a curried soup for lunch. It warms the soul! 🙂 Look forward to trying this sometime soon.
Hey there! When you sprout lentils do they cook in a shorter period of time? Thanks!
Yes! It takes the cooking time down buy almost half. 🙂