Grain Soup in Pumpkin and Lentil Cream: ‘Smart Cooking’ Recipe for the Coldest Days of the Year!
We have just entered the famous Merla Days. What better time to pamper yourself and warm up with a steaming and enveloping grain soup with pumpkin and lentil cream? A unique, nutritious, and 100% plant-based dish, designed to warm the heart and recharge the body with fiber and noble proteins.
Why is this Soup the Perfect Comfort Food?
In the heart of winter, our body seeks nutrients that support the immune system without weighing down digestion. Specifically, the 5 Grains (Spelt, Barley, Rice, Wheat, Oats) ensure a high sense of satiety. The choice to use precooked ones is an excellent solution to save time without giving up nutritional benefits. This shows that you can eat well even when you’re in a hurry! Lentils, rich in iron and vegetable proteins, are indispensable for a balanced diet. Pumpkin, finally, in addition to its enveloping sweetness, provides beta-carotene and essential minerals, creating a creamy base that makes the addition of fats or dairy unnecessary.
Slow Cooking for the Coldest Days
Preparing this soup is an invitation to slowness. Cooking the grains directly in the pumpkin cream allows the flavors to blend perfectly, creating a dense and ‘rustic’ texture that tastes of home and tradition. It’s the ideal recipe for weekly meal prep: make plenty of it because the next day, reheated, it’s even better!
If you love comfort food, here are some other soup, broth, and creamy recipes you might be interested in:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop, Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
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- 9.9 oz precooked 5-grain mix
- 1 lb pumpkin
- 5.3 oz lentils (mignon)
- 1 golden onion
- 1 carrot
- 5.5 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 bunch aromatic herbs (sage, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, and parsley)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1.4 oz extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste mixed peppercorns
Tools
- 1 Knife
- 1 Casserole
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Kitchen twine
Steps
To prepare the soup, start with the vegetables: wash and clean the pumpkin, removing the outer skin, internal filaments, and seeds, then cut it into regular cubes about 0.6 inches.; trim and peel the carrot, cut it into brunoise, that is, uniform cubes about 0.2 inches thick. Finally, do the same with the onion.
Now prepare an aromatic base by heating a generous drizzle of oil in a large casserole and browning the garlic clove and chopped onion over high heat.
Using untreated kitchen twine, create a bouquet of aromas by placing the bay leaves and sage to ‘protect’ the thyme, rosemary, and parsley sprigs (only the stems)*. Bind the herbs tightly together by making 2 or 3 turns of twine.
Add the bouquet to the sauté, also add the carrot brunoise, let it flavor for 1′, then add the previously rinsed dry lentils under running water.
Pour in 2-3 ladles of hot vegetable broth and let it flavor.
Add the pumpkin cubes and stir while keeping the flame high.
Now add the tomato paste with another ladle of hot broth to dissolve it.
After a couple of minutes, cover with all the remaining vegetable broth and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a minimum and cook for about 25′.
10′ before the end of cooking, adjust the salt and mix well.
At this point, take out three ladles of pumpkin and lentils and transfer them to an immersion blender.
Blend them in several bursts until you get a nice smooth and fluid cream and set aside.
Add the 5 grains to the soup and continue cooking for the remaining 10′.
Once cooked, pour the cream back into the pot. This will create that velvety ‘cuddle’ that will embrace the grains.
Turn off the heat and adjust the salt and pepper. Let the soup rest, covered, for 2′-3′ before serving: this step will allow the grains to stabilize the starch and become one with the cream.
Serve with a drizzle of raw oil and coarsely chopped parsley leaves.
And voilà… the grain soup in pumpkin and lentil cream is ready to be enjoyed!
Bon Appétit from La Cucina di FeFè!
Storage
👉As whole grains tend to absorb a lot of liquid during rest, store the soup for 3-4 days max in the fridge inside an airtight container (preferably glass) once cooled. You will notice that the next day the soup will appear very thick. To make it creamy again, add a ladle of hot water or vegetable broth while reheating it, or, before storing it in the fridge, keep aside 2 ladles of pumpkin cream to add when serving.
Tips, notes, variations, and suggestions
🟣*Creating an aromatic bouquet transforms a simple soup into a chef’s dish, allowing the essential oils of the herbs to be released without leaving woody residues in the final dish. The bay leaf (1 or 2 leaves) is essential for the digestibility of the legumes. The rosemary (1 generous sprig) marries divinely with lentils and pumpkin. The sage (3-4 leaves) enhances the sweetness of the pumpkin. Finally, thyme (a couple of sprigs) and parsley (only the stems) offer a fresh, herbaceous, and balsamic note. Naturally, if you do not have all of these available, you can add just one of your choice from those listed, or, in addition to the classic bouquet, for a unique touch to your soup, you can use other herbs such as marjoram with floral and citrus aroma, ideal if you want a ‘gentle’ and refined soup, or the fresh coriander with a pungent aroma.
🟣If you know you’ll be storing the soup, turn off the heat when the grains are still very al dente. They will finish hydrating with the residual heat and with subsequent reheating without becoming sticky.
🟣The grains: you can of course replace the precooked grains (those in bags or glass that cook in about 10 minutes) with dry grains of your choice. Naturally, the cooking time will be much longer, and you will need to add them to your soup much earlier based on the times indicated on the packaging you have chosen.
🟣For an extra health touch, add a pinch of turmeric or some fresh grated ginger, which pairs divinely with pumpkin.
🟣For a gourmet touch, add a pinch of cinnamon after turning off the heat.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. Can I use dry or precooked lentils?
For an authentic taste and better hold, I recommend dry lentils (small or red): they release starches that naturally thicken the soup. If you’re short on time, precooked ones in glass are a great dinner-saving alternative.
