Preparation

• Prepare the lentils by following the procedure described in Cooking lentils | basic recipe or if you have them ready in the freezer, defrost a double portion.

  Alternatively, use canned pre-cooked lentils.
  Remember to rinse them well under running water: canned legumes often contain additives, salt, and sometimes sugar.
  Among the types of packaging, glass containers are preferable to tin ones as they are less prone to spoilage.

  

• Clean and wash the vegetables thoroughly:
  – Swiss chard or red chard stems and leaves;
  – celery stems and leaves;
  – Tropea red onion.

  Separate the leaves and chop the stems of Swiss chard or red chard into pieces.
  Separate the leaves and chop the celery stems into pieces.
  Cut the Tropea red onion in half or quarters.

  In a pan, pour 7 oz of water, add the vegetables, bring to a boil, cover with a lid, and cook for 10 minutes.

  With the flame off, add a vegetable broth cube for additional flavor [optional].

• Pour the lentils into the vegetable broth.
  Add the still frozen porcini mushrooms and stir until they are completely thawed, just a few minutes.

  Adjust the salt and grind the pepper.

  Let it simmer over low heat until the soup reaches the desired consistency.

  Plate up.
  Grind some more pepper and drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

  Your red soup with Swiss chard, onion, and lentils is ready.

  Enjoy your meal!

  
• 

• The lentil soup with Swiss chard and onion, enveloping and tasty, is delicious with pasta, rice, or preferably whole-grain bread to increase fiber content.

  In case of brothy first courses, to avoid glycemic spikes, it is advisable to cook the pasta separately, then rinse it and add it to the brothy condiment prepared separately; this way, the starch released by the pasta in the cooking water is eliminated.

• – Yellow soup with pumpkin, shallot, and lentils;
  – Green soup with celery, onion, and peas.