Esau's Soup

A few years ago, I took cooking at BYU. It was an awesome class. For our final project, we had to come up with a dinner that cost under $3 a person. Sounds like easy right? It wasn’t. It was actually a lot harder than I had anticipated. Since then, I have become more conscious of how much each meal I make costs, especially since I’m married now. I figured since this is my blog (sometimes Matt’s) I wanted to put up some of our favorite recipes (because how am I suppose to make dinner if pinterest is down and I can't get to the recipe??)

Red Lentil Soup Vegan and therefore also vegetarian, and gluten free!! (Basically everyone can eat this)

History of Lentil Soup According to Wikipedia (which is back up!!!) 

"Lentil Soup is mentioned in the Bible: In Genesis 25:34, Esau is prepared to give up his birthright for a pot of fragrant red lentil soup (a "mess of pottage") being cooked by his brother, Jacob.” 

Esau gave up his birthright just to get this soup, which was kind of a big deal.

Red Lentil Soup > Isaac's Inheritance

Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly the red lentil soup, but really this recipe is amazing. 

Red Lentil Soup Recipe 

From: SassyRadish.com

Ingredients:

$ .15  3 tablespoons olive oil,
  .39   1 large chopped yellow onion
  .05   2 minced garlic cloves
  .50   1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
  .01   1 teaspoon ground cumin
  .01   1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  .01   1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  .01   Pinch of ground chili powder or cayenne
  .33   1 quart chicken or vegetable stock (I use 3 bullion cubes and 4 cups of water)
  .88   1 cup red lentils (These are at the sunflower market, and 1 cup is a little less than half a lb)
  .40   1 large carrot, peeled and diced
  .59   Juice of 1/2 lemon
   .79  3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

$ 4.12 for everything (Given that you have salt, pepper, bullion cubes, cumin, and chili powder)

Preparation:

In a large pot, heat 3 tablespoons oil over high heat until hot and shimmering. Add onion and garlic, and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste, cumin, salt, black pepper and chili powder or cayenne, and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add broth, lentils and carrots. Bring to a boil, then partially cover pot and turn heat to low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste and season with salt if necessary.

Using an immersion or regular blender or a food processor, purée half the soup then add it back to pot. Soup should be somewhat chunky.

Reheat soup if necessary, then stir in lemon juice and cilantro.

Serves 6 to 8

Total per serving: $0.52-0.69 

Let me know if you make this. I really hope someone does. It is amazing and cheap and basically everyone can eat it. 


Also, if you have any awesome recipes that are cheap and yummy, would you mind giving me a copy? I love trying new recipes.


PS I'll put a picture up as soon as I can.
PSS This is with actual Macey's prices.