Lentil Soup, Greek Comfort Food

With both of my parents having been raised in Greece, my version of "comfort food" varies slightly from the traditional mac and cheese or chicken noodle soup that most people think of. My mother has been making this lentil soup for me since I was old enough to eat solid foods. It's filling, it's healthy and a nice bonus is that it's super inexpensive to make.

Here's a list of our ingredients:



First, put your lentils in a colander and rinse.



Once rinsed, put the lentils in your pot and add water until they are covered.



Set the temperature to high and bring them to a boil. While the lentils are coming up to a boil, go ahead an chop your onion.



Once it comes up to a boil...



put the lentils back in the colander and rinse them again. In case you're wondering what all of the rinsing and boiling is about, it allows us to skip the "soak beans overnight" step that most bean recipes require.



Put the lentils back in the pot and add 7 cups of water.



While we're waiting for the beans to come up to a boil, I put all of the other ingredients in a bowl so that I can just dump them in together. So, into the bowl go 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 minced clove of garlic, your chopped onion, 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of oregano.



Mix your soup and bring it up to a boil.



Now add in your bowl of ingredients as well as your three bay leaves.



Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for 40-45 minutes. Before you serve the soup, add in a couple teaspoons of salt and mix it well. Then, it's ready to eat!



I like to serve this with a big chunk of crusty bread.