The Queen of legumes, Lentil Soup

Lets talk about warm, healthy, delicious and hearty meal. This is a dish that I make every week, specially on Monday (meatless Monday). For this recipe I use a different kind of lentil called pardina. They are a little smaller than other lentils and they have more texture. and are excellent at holding their shape during long cooking times. They cook super fast and in my opinion they are the Queen legumes because they are high of protein, fiber, iron, zinc, potassium, magnesium excellent source of folate.

I will eat this bowl of soup with some rice or quinoa and splash of freshly squeezed of lemon juice.

Ingredients
1 x 16 ounces pardina lentil
1 yellow onionssmall, diced
3 garlic clovechopped
1 red pepperssmall, diced
2 roma tomatoesdiced
32 oz chicken brothor vegetable
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoons cumin
2 carrotsdiced
1 celery stalk
salt
pepper
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 bay
⅓ cup cilantrofresh chopped
⅓ cup parsleyfresh chopped
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional

Instructions

In a medium size pot, sauté diced onions, garlic, pepper, tomato and carrots, after onions are translucent seasoned with cumin, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and add the tomato paste. Sauce for another 3 to 5 min or until the sofrito is all combine. Add the lentil, chicken broth and the celery stalk seasoned with the dry oregano, Italian seasoning and the bay leave. Let it boil then reduce to a medium low heat and let it simmer for 30 mins or until the lentil are tender. You probably need to add some water to thin the soup a little bit but I like my soup on the creamy side. Five minutes before serving add chopped cilantro and parsley. Removed the bay leave. Buen Provecho and enjoy it!
Serves 6 
Prep time 20 min 
Cooking time 30 min