This scrumptious Swiss chard soup with red lentils takes one pot, it's ready in 30 minutes and will surprise your taste buds! Hearty red lentils combined with green swiss chard, garlic, and broth infused with cumin, turmeric and cinnamon. Finished with a bright splash of lemon juice, fresh coriander, and chili flakes.
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Mediterranean, vegan
Keyword: swiss chard soup
Servings: 4
Calories: 344kcal
Author: Katia
Ingredients
1 ½Tbspextra virgin olive oil or olive oil
1onion, diced (any color is fine)
3garlic cloves, minced
½TbspTurmeric
1tspcumin
1tspcinnamon
½tspcoriander
¼tspcrushed red pepper
⅛tspground black pepper
1 ½ cup(10oz-300 grams)red lentils, rinsed and pick over
1 bunch(7oz/200 grams)swiss chard, leaves and stems separated
5 ½ cup(1.3 litre)water or low-sodium vegetable broth
1tspfine salt
1small bunchfresh coriander
1large lemon, cut into wedges
Instructions
Wash the chard and with a knife separate the leaves from the stems. Chop the stems and slice the leaves (but keep leaves and stems separate).
In a large pot or Dutch oven warm the olive oil, add onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add the garlic, all the spices, give a good stir, and cook for a further 20-30 seconds.
Add the lentils, the chopped stems and the broth (alternately, warm water will work too). Bring to the boil.
Reduce to medium heat, cover with a lid and cook until the lentils are soft, it will take about 15-20 minutes.
Once the lentils are done, blend part of the soup with an immersion blender (alternately, transfer part of the soup into a highspeed blender, but be careful, it's hot and in this case you might want to turn the heat off and wait 5 minutes until it cools down a bit).
Add the Swiss chard leaves and half of the coriander, push them down with the back of a wooden spoon, and cook for about 3 minutes until the leaves are tender but still bright and green.
Turn off the heat, taste and adjust the seaoning adding more salt and pepper according to your taste. You might want to adjust the consinstency too, feel free to add a bit of warm water if you wish to thin out the soup.
Serve with extra chili flakes if you like, chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice (about a quarter of lemon per serving is fine, don't skip it!). Enjoy.
Notes
Swiss chard: I used rainbow chard in this recipe, but regular swiss chard with the white stem works well too.
Storage: This soup will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days. It will absorb all the liquid as it sits and to reheat, add some water until it’s thinned to the desired consistency, then gently warm over medium-low heat.
Nutrition facts: Please note that the nutrition values are based on an online nutrition calculator. It’s an estimate only and it should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. The nutrition value is for one serving (about 2 cups).