Back in Frankfurt, lentil soup is commonly served in a huge bowl, topped with a huge roll of sausage and stacked with a side serving of bread rolls. The first time I saw it being served in a small roadside standing café, I was appalled by the amount of food these Europeans were served. Lentils are legumes and legumes can be very filling, but most of the café patrons could actually finish every drop of the soup, every inch of their sausages and every crust of their bread rolls. There and then, I doubted the capability of my own appetite and decided to share one bowl of lentil soup with the guy instead.
I must say though, eating a hot bowl of lentil soup on a bitter cold day is all that one needs to keep warm. This dish is very inviting, especially when one is exploring a food market along the streets of Frankfurt on a freezing, freaking cold winter day. There is no way I could simulate the cold weather here in a hot and humid Singapore, but I could at the very least attempt to replicate the taste of Germany with this tasty bowl of lentil soup.
Ingredients:
- Oil: 2 tbsp
- Onion: 1, chopped
- Bacon: 2 slices, diced
- Carrot: 1, peeled and diced
- Leek: 1, leaves removed, finely sliced
- Green (or brown) lentil: 1.5 cups, washed
- Chicken stock cube: 2
- Water: 1 liter
- Potato: 2, peeled, diced
- Salt: 2 tsp
- Ground blackpepper: 1 tsp
- White wine vinegar: 1 tbsp
- Coriander: 1 stalk, chopped
- Frankfurter sausage: 6
- Bread roll: 4
Method:
- Heat oil in pot.
- Add onions and bacon. Fry till fragrant.
- Add carrots and leek. Fry for 1 min.
- Add lentils, chicken stock cube and water. Leave to simmer for 25 min.
- Add potatoes, salt, blackpepper and vinegar. Leave to simmer for another 10 min.
- Switch off heat and stir coriander into the soup. Set aside.
- Warm up sausages in hot water. Drain water away.
- Place sausages into bowls, either in wholes or sliced. Spoon soup equally into bowls.
- Garnish with remaining coriander.
- Serve with brötchen (bread rolls) for dipping.
Disclaimers:
- This recipe was kindly adapted from Angela Francisca Endress’s & Barbara Nickerson’s Original Hessisch: The Best of Hessian Food.
- The Linsensuppe that we tried at the frankfurter Wochenmarkt (Frankfurt weekday market) serves the soup with sliced sausages as well as Spätzle (egg noodles), the latter of which is not included in my recipe as the guy and I both agreed that this soup is already filling as it is!
Serving:
4 persons
