Czech Lentil Soup
Please hurry up to my table everybody, I will serve the Czech lentil soup any minute! We call it čočková polévka in the Czech Republic, and this soup tastes amazingly delicious!
Servings 5
Ingredients
- 1 and ¼ cups (250 g) dried lentils green / brown
- 5 oz (140 g) smoked sausage
- 1 carrot mid-sized
- 1 onion large, or 2 small
- 2 cloves of garlic
- salt
- pepper ground
- 1 tsp dried marjroram
- 6 cups (1.44 l) beef broth
Instructions
- First, cook the lentils according to the producer's instructions. The fastest and easiest way to get the lentil soup ready is to get pre-cooked lentils.
- Peel garlic, onions, and carrots. Slice garlic into thin pieces, chop onions roughly. Cut carrots lengthwise and slice into half-circles. Dice smoked sausage into ½-inch pieces.
- In a pot with a thicker bottom, melt lard over medium heat until shimmering. Start frying the prepared ingredients in this order:
- Add carrots, fry while stirring for about 5 minutes.
- Throw in smoked sausage. Fry for another 3-5 minutes.
- Add onions, sauté for 1 minute until translucent.
- As the last step, add sliced garlic and fry for 1 minute, but not longer, else garlic gets brown and will taste bitter.
- Add ⅔ of cooked lentils. Reserve 1 cup of broth, pour the rest in the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a minimum, let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Meantime, mix the ⅓ of remaining lentils with 1 cup of broth with an immerse mixer. Add in the pot.
- Add dried marjoram (always at the end of cooking), stir well, and you're done!
Notes
- Makes 5-6 yields.
- Serve this lentil soup warm. Top the soup with chopped green parsley leaves while serving.
- According to this recipe, lentil soup is light and not too filling, take a slice of bread if you are hungry or if this soup is supposed as a lunch.
- The time necessary for cooking lentils is not in Total Time included. Every kind of lentils needs a different amount of time to be done.
- Especially in winter months, Czech thickens their "čočková polévka" with a roux. It's made from flour fried with butter in the same ratio.
- Czechs eat lentil soups on the first day of the new year. They believe, how many grains of lentils are in the soup, that's how much money they'll have in the new year.