Step 1

Check the lentils on a plate as they sometimes contain small stones in the original package and rinse them.
Rinse the canned chick peas.
Wash the onion and garlic.
Cut the onion, parsley stems and celery stalks and into small pieces.
Cut the garlic in half and crush it with the flat part of your knife.

Step 2

Preheat your cooking pot, medium heat, add 2 tbsp of olive oil.
Saute the onion, garlic, parsley stems and celery stalks for about 3 min till they are glazed.
Add the lentils, chick peas, red paprika, cinnamon, coriander, cumin powder, black pepper, the chili and canned tomatoes and saute for another 3 min.

Step 3

Add 1,2l of water and bring it to boil.
Cook it under medium heat for about 30 min.
Note: Do not add any salt at this stage as this will prolong your cooking time significantly!

Step 4

In the meantime while the soup is cooking prepare the rice.
Rice naturally contains the toxic element arsenic. You can check out different methods discussed on web to reduce the amount of arsenic in your boiled rice. This is the one I use: Rinse the rice until the rinsing water comes out clear. Add 10 cups of water to 1 cup of rice into your cooking pod and bring it to boil. Boil it for about 6 min. Pour out the water. Your rice in the cooking pod will be still wet. So, put the cooking pod with the wet rice back on the stove. Keep it on low heat until the remaining water evaporates.

Step 5

After 30 min, as soon as the lentils are soft add salt.
If you want to use your soup as a pre-preparation meal take off this part of the soup at this stage, let it cool down and put it into your freezer. Later when you like to warm it up again, bring it to boil just continue with step 6 in order to use fresh vegetables for your pre-prep meal.

Step 6

Add the spinach and let the soup boil for another 3 min. Turn off the heat.
Squeeze the fresh lemon.
Add 1/2 of the lemon juice to the soup and stir it in with a spoon. Let it sit for 2 min. Add some more salt, black pepper, olive oil and lemon juice according to your taste.
Rinse the fresh coriander, parsley leaves and fresh mint. Cut it into small pieces.
Serve the soup. Add the rice on top and garnish the soup with the fresh herbs.

When you buy canned tomatoes check the list of ingredients. Best taste you get with those which contain pure tomatoes only and are not filled up with tomato juice. You will get the best taste out of the chick peas if you use dry chick peas (250g to serve 4 person), soak them in water over night, remove the soaked water, add fresh water to your chick peas and cook them for about 1 hour until the chick peas are soft.

Enjoy!

* Nutrition details:

Glycemic load (GL): Indicates how much glucose your meal contains and how this will affect the insulin reaction in your body. You can use a total consumption value of 100g GL per day as orientation. Meaning, if you have 3 meals per day, try to stay below the 33g GL per meal to avoid overconsumption of natural sugar. For example one average banana peeled (100g) comes with a GL of 16. One small portion of white rice (40g uncooked) has a GL of 22.

Protein / 100 kcal: In order to have a filling meal and to ensure to achieve the recommended minimum protein intake of 0.8g protein / kg body weight per day a ration of more than 3g protein / 100 kcal is a good orientation for this indicator for each meal.

Vitamins and minerals: Percentages represent the percentage of recommended daily intake (based on FDA’s Daily Value). Mentioned vitamins and minerals have a particular high nutritional density in this dish. Means, if you would only eat this dish for one day, you would easily exceed the 100% of recommended daily intake for the mentioned mineral or vitamin. Please take into account that these values are just for orientation and might vary depending on your individual situation e.g. if you are a professional athlete, pregnant etc.

Costs: Approx. costs of organic ingredients in Germany