Spanish Lentil Soup

Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 lb brown lentils
• 1 1/2 quarts beef stock or 1 1/2 quarts water
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 head garlic, chopped
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 2 ounces rice
• 1/4 cup manzanilla sherry wine

Recipe

• 1 place the lentils in a large saucepan. add the stock or water, bay leaves and parsley. bring to the boil, reduce the heat, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and simmer, partly covered.
• 2 meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan. fry the onion gently until softened, around 5 minutes.
• 3 add the garlic, carrot, tomato and red pepper. fry gently for 5 minutes. remove from direct heat, season with salt and freshly ground pepper, paprika and cumin.
• 4 add the onion mixture and the rice to the simmering soup. simmer the soup until the lentils are tender, around 45 minutes in all.
• 5 mix in the sherry and serve.
• 6 for vegetarian use only the water.