Name: Portuguese Lentil and Rice Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 5 servings
Cuisine: Portuguese
Ingredients: 200 g broken red lentils; 100 g whole red lentils; 80 g short grain rice; 1 onion, chopped; 3 cloves garlic, crushed; 1 carrot, diced; 3 tablespoons cold-pressed sesame oil, plus more to finish; 1 bay leaf; 1.5 litres, to taste water and salt

Before you cook

Portuguese home soup is deliberately unfussy. The finishing oil, poured over each bowl rather than cooked in, is where the flavour arrives.

Broken lentils give body and whole ones give texture, so a mixture of the two makes a better bowl than either alone.

Method

Warm the oil and cook the onion and carrot together for eight minutes.
Add the garlic and bay leaf, stirring for a minute until aromatic.
Rinse both lentils together and add them with the water to the pot.
Bring to the boil and skim any grey foam that gathers on the surface.
Simmer covered for twenty minutes until the broken lentils have collapsed.
Stir in the rice and cook for a further fifteen minutes, uncovered.
Stir regularly at this stage so the rice does not settle and catch.
Add hot water if the soup thickens past a comfortably spoonable consistency.
Season with salt only once the rice is fully cooked and swelling has stopped.
Serve each bowl with a generous spiral of raw oil poured over the top.

Comments

Loading comments…