I love making soups in the winter.
They warm up the house when you make them! Another big bonus is they last several meals and eliminate cooking for several nights at the least.
Dry lentils last a long time.
It was about 7:30 on Monday night and pouring down rain when I went to cook dinner and realized I didn’t have much in the house. (Yikes!) A quick look in the cupboard revealed I had a bag of dry lentils which had been there since last winter. Luckily, lentils will last a year or more if you keep them in an airtight container (or tie up the bulk plastic bag you got them in, which was my case). I also happened to have on hand the very few, additional items required to make my favorite lentil soup.
Voila. Done in about an hour, and we had meals for four days!
You can make a big pot of something one night, and then add a few things the next night to make it feel like a completely different meal.
Case in point– this lentil, rice and bison bowl.
The first night, we had soup. The second night, I put rice in the rice cooker while I heated ground bison on the stovetop (super fast and easy). We layered a bowl with 1 cup rice, 1 cup soup, and 3 oz bison. It made a hearty meal. Not to mention it’s a meal in a bowl, which is a fun way to eat!
You can really spice this one up if you like. Add sriracha sauce or some hot pepper flakes. Anything goes, really!
Nutrition Information for the Lentil, Rice and Bison Bowl
This is the info for 1cup rice, 1 cup soup, and 3 oz bison. (See the nutrition information for the lentil soup alone here.)
Can you swap the bison for beef? You sure can. I’ve got the beef info below and it’s not much different if you use 90% lean beef. You can also swap the bison for vegetarian “ground beef.”
There’s a lot of protein in this bowl.
Twenty-nine grams in a meal with only 550 calories and plenty of fiber. And there’s a lot of iron. About half comes from the lentils; the other half comes from the meat.
Bon Appetit!
With Bison:
With 90% Lean Beef
