A (mainly vegetarian), low-cost meal that will fill you up completely and leave you with a ton of leftovers. Plus, it’s incredibly simple to make and healthful.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 6 cups beef stock
- 1 cup dry lentils
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, or to taste
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
- 1 (15 ounce) can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup cooked quinoa (Optional)
- 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves and thinner stems, chopped
- 1 bunch cilantro leaves and thinner stems, chopped
- 1 lemon, or to taste, juiced
Instructions
- Stir beef stock and lentils together in a large pot; bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and keep at a simmer while preparing onion.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir onion, cinnamon stick, ginger, turmeric, cumin, and black pepper in the hot oil until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes; add to stock mixture.
- Pour garbanzo beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, and quinoa into the stock mixture; stir and bring mixture to a boil. Stir parsley and cilantro into the stock mixture; reduce heat to low and cook mixture at a simmer until the lentils are tender, about 45 minutes. Drizzle lemon juice over the soup before serving.
- Cook’s Notes:
- To make the soup wholly vegetarian, trade out the beef stock for vegetable stock.
- If you do use quinoa, be sure to prepare it separately from the soup (1/2 cup unprepared = 1 cup prepared). Throwing it into the soup unprepared will cause it to absorb all the liquid and you will be left with a very, very thick stew.
Reviews
I really loved this! I added harissa powder and a little extra of the other spices. I forgot the beef bouillon but didn’t notice a lack of flavor. I cooked it in one pot as a previous cook mentioned.
I loved this recipe because I’m trying to limit my meat intake. The only adjustments made were doubling the spices, add swiss chard instead of parsley and reverse the instructions, I did step 2 first, to keep it to one pot. Highly recommend
Enjoyed the Moroccan flavors. Nice variety to the usual. Followed the recipe as written. Turned out great.
This is great stuff! The only ingredients I changed were 1/2 t ground cinnamon, since I didn’t have a cinnamon stick, and uncandied chunks of preserved ginger instead of fresh. Also, I didn’t precook either the lentils or the quinoa. I just sauteed the onion and spices, added the broth and lentils, and simmered for a while; then I added 1 c of raw, rinsed quinoa. of course this sucked up the broth, so I added 2 more cups. I try to keep my meat intake to a minimum, but I can see this would be excellent with sausage added; very good as is, though. Another great thing about this soup is that it’s largely made from pantry items. The only things I had to buy to make it were the parsley and cilantro, and if it was summer, I wouldn’t even have needed to buy those since they’d be in the garden. next time I will either add less quinoa or more broth to begin with, otherwise I’ll do it the same way.
Only put half a bundle each of cilantro and parsley in.
Mostly vegetarian… 6 cups of beef broth, btw you’d like.. traditionally lamb. It is a beautiful soup.. Please enjoy it! You have a great recipe. Thank you, ~ Louis.
I used 4 cups of vegetable broth and two cups of water with 3 Not-Beef Bouillon cubes in place of the beef broth, and three crushed garlic cloves at the end of the onion cooking time. I also added a half cup of uncooked quinoa so it turned into a thick stew. We scooped it up with fresh naan and this is so delicious it is destined to become a family favorite. Thanks for this recipe!
Soup was pretty good. Added some paprika fennel and coriander. Made it a little more savoiry in my opinion. Family really liked it. I’ll definitely be making it again.
Fabulous soup!
The spices in this are amazing! My new favorite soup. Thank you for posting.
The Quinoa took over, even though it had been cooked ahead of time, otherwise, was very.
Not made this yet. The recipe says 10 servings but I can’t find what the yield is for the recipe in order to calculate how much is in each serving. I hate this in recipes. I’m on a strict diet so calculating means a lot to me – especially beforehand.
this recipe was great, very flavorful, I left out the quinoa and thought it was still perfect.
This worked out wonderfully for us, it used up mostly pantry staples that I already had on hand, and my kids loved it, especially the baby. I cooked mine in an instant pot, once all the ingredients were added I just set it on soup for 10 minutes. The lentils were so well done that I probably could have gotten away with less time. Definitely add the precooked quinoa.
Loved it! Only had ground cinnamon & ginger so used 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon & 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.
It took me a little Ionger to make because I used dried beans and cooked them first in my instapot. I cooked the quinoa in lamb drippings I had saved in the freezer. Everything else was as the recipe called for. Loved it!
I didn’t have tarragon or a cinnamon stick, so I used a little less than a teaspoon of ground cinnamon plus some garlic. I also added a little less than a pound of chicken and cooked the chicken with the onions, garlic, and other spices. It was amazing! I’ll definitely make it again!
Loved the soup! Didn’t have kidney beans so I used black beans instead. The water dried up quickly and within 30 minutes it looked more like a very thick stew or a salsa so I just kept adding water and it turned out great!
My husband could not eat just one helping and our neighbor loved it so much he gave me a gift of Very good Chardonnay !
This soup is one of the best to please everyone in my house. Simplified it a bit by just using one big pot and adding items in sequence: I sauted the Onion Then add the broth Then everything else just goes in the pot Used half a cup dry quinoa and just added a cup or two of extra broth.
This dish was just okay. It has taste, but it was lacking, so I added a large cloves of garlic and extra 1/2 tsp of cumin. It helped and tasted better the next day.