A Crafty Arab: Lebanese Lentil Soup

This evening my past mother's groups had our annual Soup Social reunion. The Soup Social was one of the best attended events when the group was active and a few brilliant members have decided to continue it.

A Soup Social is held in a home (thanks D!) and everyone is to bring a homemade soup. If you are not able to bring a soup, breads and desserts are encouraged as alternates.

We had 10 different types of soups, including the Lebanese Lentil Soup I brought, homemade rosemary bread, olive bread, crackers, french bread, and a dessert table covered with chocolate eclairs, homemade gingerbread cake, and so many other goodies I'm getting full just thinking about them again.

I found the Lebanese Lentil Soup recipe here after I met Amanda at the Arab Festival last August. Her food demos were so full of goodness, I knew when I got the invite for the event that I would go straight to her website to look for a fall, warms your bones, soup. It was there that I found this Lebanese Lentil Soup.

Just in case it looks intimidating, here is the entire process in four easy steps:

1. Rinse the lentils and rice and place them in a stock pot with 2 cups of the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cover.

2. Drizzle a layer of oil in a pan and add the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the 6 remaining cups of vegetable stock and lemon juice. We'll put them in later.

Mix everything together for a few minutes until your saute vegetables are soft and look like this.

3. Pour what is in the pan to the pot and once the vegetable stock has been reduced down, add the remaining 6 cups. Continue to simmer for 35-40 minutes, or until lentils are tender.