Greek Red Lentil Soup with Lemon, Rosemary and Feta Cheese

Now that the weather is cooler I'm back into making soups! Luckily I've come across some really amazing ones to share with you guys. I love lentils in soup, especially split red split lentils. I love how they fall apart mmm. So creamy and delicious. In addition to lentils, the soup has lots of other yummy things - onion, carrots, rosemary, oregano, lemons, chile flakes, and feta. A simple ingredient list with such a tasty result. The feta is a great addition but the soup is delicious without it (and then it's vegan!)

If you can use fresh herbs, of course that would be better but I used dried. The recipe gives the option of pureeing or not and I almost always prefer pureed soups so that's what I went for. I wasn't sure about adding the lemon juice for two reasons. One is because some recipes call for the addition of vinegar when I don't think it belongs. I've made several things like that and have stopped listening to the recipes and started listening to myself! Not that I don't love vinegar - I really do. But I just don't want all my food to have that sourness. And the other reason I was scared of adding the lemon juice is because of this awful experience I had once with carrot orange soup where I juiced some oranges and failed to measure the amount of juice before adding it to the soup. Disgusting!! Well not disgusting but I defnitely did not enjoy the orange flavoured soup.

This is a delicious, filling and easy soup to add to your repertoire. Do you have any favourite soup recipes? I've tried out so many but so few are keepers.

I was trying to take photos of Abby but every time I bring out the camera she runs towards it so it's really difficult to get anything other than a blur! When I took this photo, I was tapping my nails on the fridge. She loves it when we do that or scratch at things, then she gets ready to attack it. She was hiding behind the wall peaking around to see.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup
Curried Sweet Potato Soup
Beet, Barley & Black Bean Soup
Hungarian Mushroom Soup

Greek Red Lentil Soup with Lemon, Rosemary and Feta Cheese
Adapted from Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook

2 cups red split lentils
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 tsp salt
8 garlic cloves, minced
3 carrots, diced
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red chile flakes
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
8 cups vegetable stock
zest of 1/2 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tsp minced rosemary
pepper to taste

1. Rinse lentils thoroughly in a colander under cold running water. Set aside to drain. Heat oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat and saute onion with 1/2 tsp salt until translucent. Add garlic, carrot, pepper, chiles, herbs, bay leaves and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir well and saute until the carrots are just tender. Add rinsed lentils and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, partially covered, until the lentils are soft and falling apart. If you like, the soup can be pureed or left as is. If you choose to puree, remove the bay leaves first.

2. Season the soup with lemon zest, lemon juice and more salt and pepper to taste. Before serving, stir together the feta cheese, rosemary and pepper. Spirnkle over hot bowls of soup and enjoy!