french lentil soup with tomatoes, tarragon and garlic

By jsides

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 medium onion, small diced
• 4-5 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed and roughly chopped
• 2 tsp dried tarragon, crushed up with your fingers a bit
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and small diced
• 1 large stalk celery, small diced
• 1 28 ounce can dicd tomatoes
• 1 1/3 cups french lentils, picked over, rinsed and drained
• 6 ish cups vegetable stock
• salt and pepper

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from thefirstmess.com

Preparation

Step 1

makes a big pot

I know a 1/4 cup sounds like a lot of oil, but this makes a giant pot of very nutritious food. The volume of oil helps to stew the onions, garlic and herbs so that they effortlessly melt into the soup, meshing all of the flavours seamlessly (and rather luxuriously). Alternatively, you can use less oil and add spoonfuls of stock gradually to prevent sticking/over-browning.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium low. Add the onions and saute for at least 10 minutes, stirring them around frequently. It shouldn’t sizzle too loudly, this is a slow-cooking kind of process. When the onions are quite soft, add the herbs and paprika and saute for another 5 minutes, stirring all the while. Add the garlic and stir until very fragrant. Add the carrots and celery and cook for another 5-10 minutes, until all vegetables are soft.

Add the can of tomatoes and stir  to coat vegetables. Cook out the tomatoes for about 5 minutes so as to remove some of their raw, tin-y-ness. Add drained lentils and stir to coat in the vegetables, oil and tomatoes. Add a splash of the stock and scrape any browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Add remaining stock, give the whole mix a good stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, return pot to a simmer, cover with a heavy lid and allow to cook for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Check in on the pot once in a while and give it a stir. Season to your liking