FAKI SOUPA (Greek Lentil Soup) 5

Try and make the insides of a meat pie look good! Go on, dare ya!

You can’t can you??!

Well this is the same.

Faki Soupa.

This family recipe for Greek Lentil Soup comes straight to you, my readers, from the heart of my AMAZING Yaya. The taste is PHENOM dot COM but it’s pretty much ugly as all hell!

Again, dear phans, I bring to you an EASY, HEALTHY HEALTHY HEALTHY and DELICIOUS recipe….. but it’s as unattractive as unattractive can be. In Greece, it’s not served with accompaniments e.g. like pumpkin soup is served with a pretty dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of chives etc ………and I wanted to keep it authentic….. so ugly it is and ugly it shall stay….

BUT THE FLAVOUR…… ahhhhhhh THE FLAVOUR!!!

This is probably one of my all time FAVOURITE Greek foods to eat. It’s a one pot wonder, SO SIMPLE to prepare and you can make enough to last for days, or even freeze for up to 3 months!

Lentils are high in protein, iron and fibre so it’s not just good for you, it’s great for the kids too! This soup is VERY filling and satisfying, thus making it a fabulous Winter’s night dinner!

Ingredients

375 grams whole green lentils

2 onions – diced

3 cloves garlic – finely chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tin diced tomato (run the stick blener through it to remove any lumps, or just use a cup of passata)

2 bay leaves

1 inch of cinnamon bark – good quality / non flaky / thick

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon plain flour

1/2 cup malt vinegar

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Method

1) Place the lentils on a plate / on the inside of the pot lid and run your eyes over them checking for small stones / random things that aren’t lentils. Remove all “foreign objects”!

2) Wash / rinse  lentils 3 times in water. This will bring impurities to surface and you can get rid of them.

3) Add 3l of water to large pot with washed lentils.

4) Chuck in cinnamon and bay leaves. Note: pic below shows “dodgy quality” cinnamon stick/bark on left and “good quality “one on the right. You can see how the one on the left is brittle and flaky. The flavour of that one is completely inferior to the one on the right PLUS the one on the left would break apart during the cooking process and be difficult to remove before serving, whereas the one on the right will stay intact and can be removed in one go.

5) Add diced onion (dice it smaller than I did in this pic!)

6) Add chopped garlic, about 3 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper

7) Add smooth tin tomato or tomato passata.

8) Add Malt vinegar and Olive oil

9) Place pot on stove on high heat to bring to boil ASAP

10) Once boiling reduce heat so soup is at a constant simmer – leave like this, stirring intermittently to ensure lentils don’t stick to base, for abouttttttt 45 mins.

AND THEN MY CAMERA DIED!!!!

11) In a little bowl (ok so the FAKI requires one pot AND one little bowl, not just one pot!!!) place the flour and about 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, mix well. Add a ladle of the soup to this flour/vinegar mix and stir. Then pour all of this back into the main soup pot.

12) Continue to boil the soup / high simmer for another half hour. Taste to make sure the flour has been cooked out.

13) Remove the cinnamon and bay leaves……. And you’re done! You can serve with delicious crusty bread if you like, but I find it’s a perfectly complete meal on it’s own!

Stones from the beach in the village where Yaya grew up in Greece, kept in a little jar in her kitchen.