Lentil soup with chicken deserves to take first place in the culinary rating of all who love rich, but at the same time light first courses. Fragrant, healthy, easy to prepare, it is suitable for a diet, children's menu and, due to the impressive amount of tasty meat, men will surely like it. How to cook soup so that it saturates and melts in your mouth?

Lentil soup with chicken - a traditional recipe

Many housewives underestimate lentils: in our area it is considered an unusual groat and it is rarely cooked. However, this bean culture is very tasty, healthy, extremely convenient to cook: unlike peas, cereals do not need to be soaked, they cook very quickly and do not cause fermentation characteristic of peas.

There are a lot of variations of cooking lentil soup and different countries have long turned lentils into national dishes. You can add fresh tomatoes and basil to the soup, use pieces of beef instead of chicken, in a word, constantly fantasize and change the taste. But, for the first acquaintance with lentils, it is enough to master the basic recipe, which is simple and includes only a few ingredients.

For soup you will need (based on 4 liters of water):

  • One small chicken, cut into pieces - 1, 2 kg.
  • Carrots - 1 pc. (medium size).
  • Onions - 1 pc. (medium-sized head).
  • Sunflower oil - 2 tbsp. l
  • Lentil groats - 200 gr.
  • Potato - 3 medium tubers (600 gr.)

How to cook lentil soup with chicken? To start, put the chicken stock.Each housewife has her own secrets of cooking meat broth, however, the most aromatic one turns out if you add peeled onions, carrots and dry parsley root to the water along with the meat (root vegetables should be removed and thrown away at the end of cooking). While the broth is boiling, prepare a dressing. Wash lentils with water, vegetables - onions and carrots - grate on a coarse grater, cut the potatoes into neat cubes.

Now it is time to make the onion and carrot frying - it will give the soup a beautiful shade, and the taste of the dish will become saturated. Once the broth is ready, it is worth taking out all the meat and let it cool. Bring the broth to a boil and put the cereal, potatoes, frying. Cook the soup until vegetables are cooked over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Serve the prepared lentil soup with slices of cooked pitted meat, herbs and, if desired, a spoon of low-fat sour cream.

Caution! Lentils should not be digested - the seeds of properly boiled legumes should not "spill over" into the porridge. They should be elastic and burst in the mouth, turning into a gentle, slightly creamy cream.

Cooking Recipe

 

Slow cooker soup turns out more stewed, resembling a soup from a Russian stove. Ideally, you need to cook chicken in the appliance in advance, and when necessary, season it by adding potatoes, lentils and vegetables (observe the same proportions as in the basic recipe), put the soup in the “cook” mode.

The busiest housewives can go the other way and “run” all the ingredients at the same time, including pieces of chicken. Such a soup will lose transparency, but it will be thick and rich. The main thing is that you do not need to follow him, boldly doing your own thing.

Take note! Lentils are famous for their high iron content. If you want this valuable substance to benefit, remember the rule: iron is best absorbed along with fresh vegetables. So, in addition to lentil chicken soup, it will be served correctly with a salad of fresh seasonal vegetables seasoned with quality vegetable oil.

Lentil & Smoked Chicken Soup

 

Smoked chicken and lentils combine perfectly - these components complement each other, emphasizing the taste of each other. The main thing is that smoked products do not interrupt the remaining components, but only give the soup a piquant prune shade. This is easy to achieve if you strictly adhere to the proportions.

For soup it will be sufficient to purchase (choose one thing!):

  • Smoked bird backs (3 pcs.)
  • Wings (4 pcs.).
  • Hips (2 pcs.)
  • Ham (1 pc.)
  • Breast (1 pc.)

It happens that smoked kits consisting of different parts of chicken are sold. In this case, take only part of the set, carefully selecting non-greasy pieces for soup: an excessive amount of smoked meats will make the soup difficult - children should not serve such a soup.

Cooking soup is simple, based on a basic recipe. However, it is worth considering that it will take a little longer to cook the broth on smoked meat - it is important to simmer it over low heat so that the meat literally "crawls" from the bones.

To soften the pronounced aroma of smoked meats is very simple if you mix smoked meat with pieces of fresh poultry. As an addition, you can add a tablespoon of tomato paste to the roasting - so the stew will acquire a beautiful shade and barely pronounced sourness.

Green Lentil Recipe

Green lentils are very much appreciated in Europe, where salads, side dishes are prepared from it, and light diet soups are cooked. The chicken soup from these seeds is very bright, reminiscent of the summer on winter days, and the spicy taste perfectly saturates, gives a feeling of warmth.

Food lovers believe that it is best to cook soup on broth from breast or one chicken leg. However, lentils in themselves are satisfying, but you are free to choose the amount of meat at your discretion.

Step by step recipe:

  1. Let's make chicken broth.
  2. Wash green lentils in several waters.
  3. Finely chop the carrots, leeks, herbs.
  4. Peel a large potato tuber.
  5. In a boiling broth, let the vegetables drop, and then grits and cook the soup over low heat.

In France, green lentil soup with chicken is always seasoned with a pinch of nutmeg and oregano (oregano), and served with slices of dried baguette with Dijon mustard. You can adjust the recipe to your taste, but remember: putting the usual bay leaf in the soup is not worth it: “laurel” will add bitterness and kill all the other spices, so the soup will lose its sophistication.

How to cook red lentil soup on chicken stock?

 

Red lentils are the most high-calorie of all varieties of lentils. Nutrition value on 100 gr. dry cereal in it is 318 kcal., and soups are more nutritious. Otherwise, it differs little from seeds of other varieties: it also does not require soaking and practically does not boil during cooking.

The first dishes with red lentils on chicken stock can be prepared according to the basic recipe, but it will be correctly supplemented with fresh, canned tomatoes or tomato paste. In the end, be sure to squeeze a clove of garlic into the finished soup - it will turn out to be very “masculine”, spicy and aromatic.

Little trick! Everyone who monitors the weight can significantly reduce the calorie content of the finished dish. There are only two councils. First - cook soup on chicken breast broth without skin or pure fillet. The second - do not do traditional frying, add raw onions and carrots to the soup. The soup will not lose in taste and acquire a bright aroma if you add a large bunch of fresh parsley or dill before serving.

What other ingredients go well with lentils:

  • Basil.
  • Thyme (thyme).
  • Rice (they can be replaced with potatoes from time to time).

By varying the number of seeds, you can always make the soup thicker or lighter, depending on the needs of loved ones. And also, if you wish, you can completely abandon the meat components: lentils are a valuable source of vegetable protein, which, according to nutritionists, serves as a complete replacement for meat. Soup can be a favorite dish for fasting people or vegetarians.

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