Vegetarian Lentil Soup Recipe with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Cumin

Even though I'm not a vegetarian, for a while now I've been trying to be conscious about eating plenty of vegetables, beans, legumes, and whole grains. Some of you have even noticed how I love lentils, and I was happy when I found this recipe in The Sugar Solution Cookbook, a new collection of low-glycemic recipes published by the editors of Prevention Magazine. Everything about this soup sounded good, and I really didn't change it much except for using vegetable stock in place of water. The soup has a strong cumin flavor, which was one of the things I loved, and it was the perfect way to use up the last bit of one of those huge tubs of spinach from Costco.

I made this recipe two weekends ago and had already planned to post it sometime this week, but when I got an e-mail yesterday telling me about a new blog event sponsored by Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa's Kitchen, and the first one was vegetarian soups, it felt like it was meant to be. My schedule is so frantic that some weeks I have a hard time managing an entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, let alone any other event, and I'm always hoping bloggers don't take it personally when they let me know about events and I don't have time to enter. I'm just happy it turned out this time, and I hope everyone loves this vegetarian soup recipe as much as I did.

Vegetarian Lentil Soup with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Cumin
(Makes about 6 servings, recipe slightly adapted from The Sugar Solution Cookbook.)

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (not ground)
1 large onion, chopped small
4 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 T minced garlic)
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp. paprika
1 1/2 cups brown lentils
4 cans vegetable broth or water (about 7 cups, original recipe called for 5 cups water)
(could probably substitute chicken stock if you don't have vegetable broth)
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes with juice (I use Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes)
2 cups chopped spinach (tightly packed)
salt to taste (I didn't use any salt since I used canned vegetable broth)

Instructions:

Put olive oil and cumin seeds in large heavy dutch oven and cook over medium heat until fragrant and starting to pop, about 3 minutes. (Stir a few times so they don't burn.) Stir in onion, minced garlic, ground coriander, and black pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are softened, about 4 minutes. Stir in the paprika and cook about 1 minute more.

Add lentils and vegetable broth, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered about 30-40 minutes, or until lentils are quite tender.

Add diced tomatoes and juice and chopped spinach and simmer uncovered 20-30 more minutes, until soup ingredients are well blended and lentils are starting to break apart. Season to taste with salt and serve hot.

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South Beach Suggestions:

This soup is a perfect main dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet, since lentils are considered a "good carb." For phase one, I would eat this with something like a salad with Kalamata Olive Vinaigrette. For phase two or three, add some South Beach Diet friendly bread to dip into the soup.

More Delicious-Sounding Vegetarian Soups:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Black Bean and Rice Soup with Cilantro and Lime
Tomato and Cilantro Soup
Black-Eyed Pea and Vegetable Soup from Lisa's Kitchen
The Ultimate Vegetarian Soup from The Domestic Goddess
Rustic Cabbage Soup from 101 Cookbooks
Stormy Black Bean Soup from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Vegetarian Split Pea Soup from Figs with Bri
Vegetarian French Onion Soup from Andrea's Recipes
The Best Vegetarian Noodle Soup from Vanesscipes
Vegetarian Tortilla Soup from One Hot Stove