One of the best ways to incorporate nutrient-dense meals into your diet is by eating seasonally. This spring veggie lentil soup is best made in the spring when asparagus, radishes, and arugula are in full bloom. To make this soup more satiating, add some grass-fed cream and hearty sprouted lentils!
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The Story Behind This Spring Veggie Lentil Soup
Some of my favorite recipe developments are born during a grocery shopping trip. I like to pick out produce according to the abundance available due to the current season in session. While winter is my favorite season (I love snow), spring is a close second. I often feel the positive sensations of new beginnings when the spring starts because it is usually a time of growth. I developed this recipe in my early days of experimenting with food photography, and spring just happened to begin. Using color theory and nature’s abundance of currently available produce, combining bright pink radishes with vibrant green veggies made sense as their colors are complimentary. Besides being easy on the eyes, this beautiful soup became a sensation for my taste buds too!
What Is It?
Arugula, asparagus, and radishes are in season in the spring, so that’s the best time to cook with them. I start by blanching the asparagus in some vegetable stock and spices, wilting in some arugula, and blending it into a thick soup. I find roasting radishes is the best way to bring out their flavor. Simply mixing them with some salt, pepper, and ghee is an easy and minimalistic way to bring out the best taste in this gorgeous pink vegetable. To make this soup satiating, I add grass-fed cream for healthy fat and some hearty lentils for protein and carb.
Why This Spring Veggie Lentil Soup Is Healthy For You
Eating seasonal produce is often more nutritious. Studies show that eating in-season produce tends to have a higher content of nutrients than when produced out of season (often through artificial means). Eating seasonally often enough is easy when you shop at your local farmer’s market. It also helps to know where your produce is coming from and how it’s being grown. Supporting your local farming community means you can usually ask your farmers these questions so you can truly learn about your food. Besides being more nutritious, seasonal produce is cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and supports your local community!
How To Make This Spring Veggie Lentil Soup Nutrient-Dense
- Make this soup at the peak of spring when the vegetables in this recipe are in season.
- Use sprouted lentils if possible. You can sprout them on your own or buy them directly at local health food stores. The sprouting process makes legumes’ nutritional content more bioavailable for the body to absorb.
- Choose non-homogenized, grass-fed heavy cream as dairy products with these labels tend to have more omega 3s and beta carotene.
- Top this soup with fresh green sprouts, aka microgreens. These tend to be expensive, so I don’t usually buy them from the store. I tend to grow them in my garden instead. In the spring, arugula microgreens grow nicely and add an extra layer of freshness to this soup. Microgreens are healthy because they generally have a greater concentration of nutrients than their macro grown counterparts.
Tips
- Use an immersion blender to directly blend the soup in the cooking pot to your desired consistency. You can also blend the soup in batches (on a low setting) in a regular blender and make sure there is an opening in the lid for the steam to escape.
- Use homemade vegetable stock to make this taste even better. You can find my go-to recipe for vegetable stock here.
Variations
- To make this dairy-free and vegan, you can replace the ghee with avocado oil and the heavy cream with cashew cream. You can find my homemade recipe for cashew cream here.
Other Soup Recipes To Try
Spring Veggie Lentil Soup
Equipment
- Immersion Blender or High Speed Blender
Ingredients
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1 lb asparagus (chopped roughly in to 1 inch chunks)
- 1 lb arugula
- 1/2 lb radishes
- 1 cup cooked lentils
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 small white onion (chopped)
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 3 tsp Celtic sea salt
- 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 bunch of fresh sprouts or microgreens (optional)
Instructions
- Half and quarter the radishes with a knife so they are all roughly the same size.
- Toss the radishes in a mixing bowl with 1 tbsp of melted ghee, 1 tsp of salt, and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
- Roast them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper in an oven preheated to about 200 to 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes. Take them out of the oven when time is up.
- Once cool enough to handle, chop the radishes into smaller bite-size pieces and set them aside.
- Cook lentils according to package directions. Once they finish cooking, drain the water and set them aside in another bowl.
- While the radishes are roasting and lentils are cooking, preheat your cooking pot. When hot enough, heat another tablespoon of ghee and lower the heat to medium. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and stir until the onions are translucent and soft.
- Add the garlic and cook with the onions until fragrant.
- Add the vegetable stock and bring the heat back to high. Add in your chopped asparagus and let the liquid come to a boil.
- Bring the heat down to a simmer and cook with a lid partially covering the pot.
- Once you thoroughly cook the asparagus (you can test doneness by stabbing a piece with a fork), wilt in the arugula.
- Turn off the heat and blend the soup with an immersion blender right in the pot to desired consistency.
- Add more salt to taste and freshly grind in some black peppercorns.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together cooked lentils, roasted radishes, and chopped microgreens (if using).
- Ladle the soup in your favorite bowls and add the lentil radish mixture. Spoon some heavy cream on top. Top with more microgreens if desired and enjoy!
Notes
- Use an immersion blender to directly blend the soup in the cooking pot to your desired consistency. You can also blend the soup in batches (on a low setting) in a regular blender and make sure there is an opening in the lid for the steam to escape.
- Use homemade vegetable stock to make this taste even better. You can find my go-to recipe for vegetable stock here.
- To make this dairy-free and vegan, you can replace the ghee with avocado oil and the heavy cream with cashew cream. You can find my homemade recipe for cashew cream here.
soup, Spring, vegetarian