I don’t know about you, but I love having a nice hearty soup waiting for me in the fridge, especially on weeknights. I find myself making large pots of soups on Sundays which in turn carry me through the week with leftovers for lunches and an easy dinner.  I love soups just like this Italian Tomato and Lentil Soup with Spinach, full of wholesome protein and vegetables – basically everything you need for a good quick meal in a bowl.

This vegetarian Lentil Soup recipe is especially great for those of you who are trying to incorporate more meatless meals into your daily diet. It’s very filling and satisfying and you can even give it a little more protein and texture by adding broken pieces whole wheat spaghetti or pasta to it (whole wheat pastas are a great way to bump up protein). I love to serve it with grated parmesan cheese (freshly grated if you have it or use my favorite shredded Parmigiano Reggiano from Costco).

Are lentils healthy?

Lentils are not only a staple in an Italian kitchen, but also a vegetarian one. They are a complex carbohydrate and are high protein as well as fiber. They are also naturally gluten-free. It’s no secret they are an absolute powerhouse when it comes to nutrition. If you are looking to boost your protein intake, lentils make a great choice!

More healthy lentil recipes to try:

Mediterranean Lentil Salad

Slow Cooker Lentil and Quinoa Chili

Lentil Salad with Carrots and Cilantro

So delicious.

This Italian Lentil Soup recipe makes a lot of soup – about 15 cups of soup and about 8-10 servings, based on serving size. I like to freeze my leftover soup in 4 cup glass Pyrex containers like these (affiliate link). To defrost, set in refrigerator overnight and warm slowly in a pot over medium heat or in individual bowls in microwave. Add additional liquid if needed.

Ingredients for Italian Tomato and Lentil Soup

How To Make Italian Tomato and Lentil Soup

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil and add diced carrots, celery, onion, pepper and minced garlic. Season with 2 pinches of salt and fresh ground pepper. Saute vegetables in oil for about 7-10 minutes until soft and fragrant.
2. Add lentils, diced tomatoes, vegetable or chicken stock and water to vegetable mixture. Add 2 more pinches of salt.
3. Bring soup to a slow boil over medium high heat for a few minutes, then back down to a simmer over low heat. Simmer, with lid half on, for about 35-40 minutes stirring occasionally, until soup starts to thicken.
4. Taste for salt and pepper as its cooking and add more water if it gets too thick. The lentils will absorb most of the liquid in the soup while cooking but you’ll still want it to have liquid once done cooking.
5. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add fresh spinach leaves to soup and gently stir to combine.
6. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and lots of it!

Healthy Soup Recipes

Soup is one of my go to meals when I’m trying to trim some pounds or just generally feel healthier. Some soups I tend to make often are  Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Kale Soup with Sweet Potatoes, Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup, Italian Vegetable Beef Soup and Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup.

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Italian Tomato and Lentil Soup with Spinach

• Author: Aggie Goodman
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minites
• Total Time: 0 hours
• Yield: 8-10 servings
• Category: Soup
• Method: Stove
• Cuisine: Vegetarian

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2–3 celery stalks, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3–4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1lb dried lentils
• 2 15 oz cans diced Italian tomatoes, with liquid
• 4 cups vegetable (or chicken) stock
• 5 cups water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• 4 pinches kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, divided
• 10 oz bag fresh spinach
• fresh grated Parmesan, for serving

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Instructions

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil and add diced carrots, celery, onion, pepper and minced garlic. Season with 2 pinches of salt and fresh ground pepper. Saute vegetables in oil for about 7-10 minutes until soft and fragrant.
2. Add lentils, diced tomatoes, vegetable or chicken stock and water to vegetable mixture. Add 2 more pinches of salt.
3. Bring soup to a slow boil over medium high heat for a few minutes, then back down to a simmer over low heat. Simmer, with lid half on, for about 35-40 minutes stirring occasionally, until soup starts to thicken.
4. Taste for salt and pepper as its cooking and add more water if it gets too thick. The lentils will absorb most of the liquid in the soup while cooking but you’ll still want it to have liquid once done cooking.
5. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add fresh spinach leaves to soup and gently stir to combine.
6. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and lots of it!

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Notes

This recipe makes about 15 cups of soup and about 8-10 servings, based on serving size. I like to freeze my leftover soup in 4 cup glass Pyrex containers like these (affiliate link). To defrost, set in refrigerator overnight and warm slowly in a pot over medium heat or in individual bowls in microwave. Add additional liquid if needed.

The post Italian Tomato and Lentil Soup with Spinach appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

One of my daughter’s favorite soups to order out is creamy tomato soup. It’s one of my favorites too and after sharing with her the art of dunking grilled cheese (or paninis) into a bowl she asks for it all the time. I really don’t make tomato soup often enough, but a couple of weeks ago when Florida got hit with it’s 2-day winter freeze, this Tomato and White Bean Soup was exactly what we needed to warm us up. It definitely hit the spot.

Speaking of my daughter and her favorite things…my sweet girl turned 8 last Thursday and we have been celebrating her with some of her favorite things all weekend long. She’s growing up so fast and it’s just crazy to me that she was just ONE year old when I started this blog. She wasn’t even walking yet! 7 years later she is my little foodie in the making. She has the biggest heart, loves her brothers, and is just full of spunk…she’s a very funny girl and likes to crack us up – we sometimes refer to her as a mini Kristen Wiig.

Her birthday dinner request? This manicotti (minus the butternut squash) she helped me make a few months ago and key lime pie. That’s my girl.

(more…)

The post Tomato and White Bean Soup with Smoked Sundried Tomatoes appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

This is my first time participating in Kitchen Play’s Progressive Party and I’m happy to be be bringing some of this delicious Italian Fish and Potato Stew made with this month’s featured ingredient – potatoes.

When I initially started thinking about creating a soup with potatoes, I immediately started thinking of creamy soups. I might be in the minority here, but I don’t get excited about creamy soups. Then I remembered that most chowders, specifically my favorite type of chowder – Manhattan style – usually have potatoes in them. Ding ding ding! Since I had a nice piece of cod in the freezer already, I picked up some red and white potatoes along with a few other ingredients and put together this comforting, straight forward soup that was enjoyed on a dreary rainy afternoon.

This Italian Fish and Potato Stew is actually inspired by a stewed cod fish dish my grandfather makes every Christmas Eve. It’s hearty, and perfectly satisfying. It’s chock full of good clean vegetables like potatoes, celery, onion, tomatoes and garlic. I brightened it up a bit with a little clam juice and fresh squeezed lemon. At the end I threw in some roughly chopped green and kalamata olives along with the chunks of fish. It is absolutely delicious, and incredibly good for your health and for your soul.

I chose white and red potatoes for the soup because I knew they would hold up well in the hot liquid. I diced the potatoes just small enough so that they would cook up at close to the same rate as the other veggies in the soup. Adding potatoes to a healthy soup like this is a great way to add a little extra nutrition, since they are naturally fat free, high in vitamin C and great sources of fiber and potassium.

Now that is my kind of soup.

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Kitchen Play – Italian Fish and Potato Stew

• Author: Aggie's Kitchen
• Category: Fish
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Italian

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Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, small dice
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 celery stalks, small dice
• 2 red potatoes, small dice
• 1 large white potato, small dice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• pinch salt and pepper
• 1 28 oz can of Italian diced tomatoes
• 1 8 0z bottle of clam juice
• 4 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable – I used 4 cups water swirled from tomato can and added a tablespoon vegetable bouillon)
• juice from 1 large lemon
• 1 1/2 lbs fresh or frozen cod fish (or any other firm white fish), cut in 1″ – 1 1/2 ” pieces
  handful of roughly chopped green and kalamata olives
• additional salt and pepper, to taste

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Instructions

1. In a large soup pot, heat oil and add onion, garlic, celery and potato. Season with thyme, oregano, salt and pepper. Saute for about 10 minutes until slightly softened. Add tomatoes, clam juice, lemon juice and broth. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are soft. Add pieces of fish and olives to soup and gently stir. Continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes until fish is cooked through. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust accordingly.
2. Serve with whole grain bread, crackers or on it own.

Stay inspired to include potatoes into your diet by checking out the US Potato Board’s Facebook page or by signing up for the US Potato Board weekly recipe email here.

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If you asked me a couple of years ago if I would be creating recipes to enter into cooking contests where I could win trips to Culinary School in Napa Valley, I would have laughed and said … whatever.  I’m a competitive gal, but when it comes to cooking…well, I just love to cook, not necessarily to win anything, but just because I enjoy it.  But here I am…sharing with you my creation for the Everyday Chef Challenge.

Here’s the scoop for the Everyday Chef Challenge:

I am one of 5 Featured Bloggers chosen to part of a cooking challenge where a secret ingredient plus a Pacific Natural Foods staple item are revealed.  We have one week to create, cook and then share a recipe for voting.  There are two Challenges in total, and winner of each Challenge moves on the the Final Round where voting starts over and the competition is really on for the Grand Prize – all expense paid culinary bootcamp at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley.

Now…I don’t have to be the only one having this much fun!  There is a totally separate Challenge going on here too…that includes YOU.  YOU can enter a recipe using those same “secret ingredients” and compete for the same prize!  Don’t you want to go to Cooking School with me???  I’ve already recruited a blogger friend, Merry, to enter…I put the idea in her head and 24 hours later her recipe is entered!

Okay…so do you want to know about my recipe?  Challenge 1’s secret ingredients were Mushrooms and any Pacific Natural Foods broth.  After thinking about it for a couple of days, I was pretty much stuck on the idea of Mushroom Marsala.  But how to serve it was my challenge…

The Mushroom Marsala is definitely where the flavor of this dish is…but the Garlic Herb Quinoa Pilaf is no joke either.  I wanted to keep the dish meatless, so I bulked up the veggies by adding fresh spinach leaves and sundried tomatoes to the baby portobellas.  I seasoned and floured the mushrooms before sauteeing them to add a little more texture too.  The marsala wine and Pacific Mushroom broth combo made an awesome sauce for it.

As for the quinoa…I wanted to kick it up a bit and cook it in a way I hadn’t before.  I looked up the term “pilaf” on Wikipedia (culinary research!) and it says:

Pilaf … is a dish in which a grain, such as rice or cracked wheat is browned in oil, and then cooked in a seasoned broth.

So that’s what I did.  I started the quinoa with a quick saute of minced garlic and onion in a little olive oil, then added the quinoa and toasted it till fragrant and slightly brown.  Instead of water I used vegetable broth and then added toasted pine nuts at the end.  Wow is all I have to say.  If you’ve tried quinoa and haven’t been impressed, give it another try cooked this way.

If you think this sounds delicious (I assure you, it was.) then I would love to have your vote!  You can vote one time a day everyday until next Wednesday so you may get a friendly reminder or two from me!  Thanks so much!

Mushroom Marsala with Garlic Herb Quinoa Pilaf

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

For Quinoa Pilaf:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups Pacific Vegetable Broth
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, minced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

For Mushroom Marsala:

• 1 and 1/2 8oz packages of sliced portobella mushrooms (total 12 oz)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1-2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup marsala wine
• 1/2 cup – 3/4 cup Pacific Mushroom Broth
• 1 3oz package of sundried tomato halves (not in oil)
• 2 cups fresh spinach leaves

Additional Toppings

• freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
• Toasted pinenuts, optional

Directions:

1. Pre-rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer until water runs clear. Let water drain and let quinoa dry for a few minutes prior to cooking. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add minced shallots and garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add quinoa to pan and stir frequently for about 5 minutes. This will toast and enhance the flavor of the quinoa. Once quinoa is fragrant and a light golden brown, add vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Reduce down to slow simmer and continue to cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add toasted pine nuts, salt and pepper to quinoa and gently stir to combine. Cover and set aside.
2. In a large shallow dish, combine flour, salt, pepper, garlic, oregano and thyme. Gently toss sliced mushrooms in flour mixture. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add sliced shallots and minced garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes. Gently dust excess flour off sliced mushrooms and add to pan. While mushrooms are cooking, add 1 tablespoon butter to pan and continue to saute. Cook mushrooms until browned, about 5 minutes. Add 1 cup of Marsala wine to pan and bring to a quick boil.  Add mushroom broth along with sundried tomatoes and spinach leaves and bring to a quick simmer. Gently stir together as spinach leaves and sauce cook down.  Season lightly with a pinch of salt and pepper. Serve over quinoa pilaf and with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and additional toasted pine nuts (optional).

The post Mushroom Marsala with Garlic Herb Quinoa Pilaf {Pacific Natural Foods Everday Chef Challenge Entry} appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

Kelly from Baking with the Boys chose Ina Garten’s Herb Roasted Onions as her selection for one of November’s Barefoot Bloggers recipes. When I saw the recipes chosen this month, I was very excited about both of them. Not that past recipes weren’t exciting and delicious, but, these two were going to be no brainers for me, I wouldn’ t have to do too much altering to … um … lighten them up. If you know me, I’m all about lightening things up…it’s kind of like an addiction. And if you know Ina’s recipes, well you know they are usually full of good stuff like butter and cream!

Anyway, back to the onions. I think this side dish would be great for almost any meal…they would be perfect for steak or a rustic roast chicken. Throw your leftovers on a sandwich or scramble them with some eggs. They might even sneak their way onto your Thanksgiving table if you let them. I think they are definitely worthy.

I really loved the leftover dressing that was used to drizzle over the onions after they were cooked. It gave them such a fresh taste, in addition to their natural sweetness that came out from the roasting. This is real food, simplicity at it’s best.

Herb Roasted Onions

Ingredients:

• 2 red onions
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Remove the stem end of each onion and carefully slice off the brown part of the root end, leaving the root intact. Peel the onion. Stand each onion root end up on a cutting board and cut the onion in wedges through the root. Place the wedges in a bowl.
3. For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Pour the dressing over the onions and toss well.
4. With a slotted spoon, transfer the onions to a sheet pan, reserving the vinaigrette that remains in the bowl. Bake the onions for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and browned. Toss the onions once during cooking. Remove from the oven, and drizzle with the reserved dressing. Sprinkle with parsley, season to taste and serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe by Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook

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Back in August, I jousted for the first time with these yummy gelato treats. Sophie from Key Ingredient was nice enough to feature the recipe on her blog The Back Burner. It was a great write up and I can’t thank her enough! Go check it out here!

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