Saturday, January 21, 2012

Weekend Cooking: Crisis Soup

I just love recipes that clean out leftovers and this soup seems to be the king of those kind of recipes because you can basically throw in any kind of leftover veggies you have. I fond this on a Dutch site Puur Gezond and they called it crisis soup, because not only can you toss in a lot of things, it is also really cheap to make! I am going to post the version that I made here, but this soup will be different every time it is made, because there are never the same things in the fridge.


Crisis Soup (serves 5)
- 200 gr of red lentils
- 1 can of cubed tomatoes
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 tbsp of oil
- 1000 ml water
- 800-1000 gr fresh greens from your fridge

Cut up all the fresh greens in small pieces. (I had half a butternut, bok choy, Chinese cabbage, half a cauliflower, fresh parsley and some spring onions). Chop the garlic. Heat some oil in a large pan and fry the veggies. Add the lentils and the tomatoes with the water. Let it cook for 20-25 minutes. Taste and see what it needs. This will vary because it will never be the same. Add salt, pepper and other spices to taste. The soup thickens a lot and it will be really filling. We just served it with bread and garlic butter.

Can you believe how much it thickens?

Some tips:
- Instead of lentils you can also use all kinds of beans that you have in your pantry. Adjust cooking times accordingly.
- If you have very leafy veggies add them when the soup is almost done. Spinach is a good example.
- This is also a great way to clean out leftover cheese or creams that you have.
- I added parsley but other fresh herbs that you have a bunch of, can also be used up. Just make sure you taste. 

What are your favorite recipes that clean out leftovers? I would love to try them, if they are vegetarian.

This post is part of Weekend Cooking. This is a weekly meme where bloggers share all kind of food related things. Please hop over to check it out!

9 comments:

  1. I love this kind of soup. Perfect way to use up leftover veggies. I love the name Crisis Soup! I'm going to use that.

    I have made this using good stock or broth and tomatoes, leaving out the beans or lentils, and adding pasta or tortellini.

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  2. Sounds like a lovely soup! I love soups like that, simple but comforting!
    Will try it some time next week!

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  3. Wow, I always have leftovers in my frig and this is a perfect recipe for that problem. Thanks for the tip.

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  4. I love the soup, looks so good! We call it dump soup in my house, dump whatever we have in the frig!

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  5. I love to make this type of soup too. I like your name of Crisis soup. It beats the old name of Garbage soup or Compost soup. It's not only good to eat but it's fun to make too.

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  6. what ever veggies I have go into the frying pan. I start with oil, diced onion and garlic. Saute on medium for about 10 minutes, then I start adding veggies, the hardest ones first until I add the soft lines like mushrooms. Usually a tomato or some ketchup for sauce. I serve over pasta/rice/potato.

    I have been trying to leave a comment for a few weeks, but had no luck, browser trouble. I wanted to thank you for introducing me to bento. I took daughter out for a bento box lunch two weeks ago. She absolutely loved it and now wants me to buy her a bento lunch box. There is a new local shop that sells them.

    http://www.fenigo.com/LunchContainers.aspx

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  7. Sounds wonderful and looks so good on this wintry day here in Pennsylvania!

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  8. This soup sounds amazing! I love lentils. Usually I just turn my leftover things into a salad.

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  9. Yum! This looks delicious! I guess I missed this WC post? Anyway, I've become somewhat enamored with lentils, so this soup looks yummy!

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