Savoy cabbage and lentil soup
( Zuppa di verza e lenticchie )

Savoy cabbage and lentil soup recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Put soaked lentils and bay leaf in a deep pan with 3 liters of cold water.
  Cook until tender but remember lentils must finish their cooking with pasta.
  Remove lentils with a skimming ladle and put aside.
  Don't eliminate their cooking liquid.
• - Meanwhile ...
  ... soak dried mushrooms in warm water.
  Clean savoy cabbage and cut it into thin strips.
  Clean, wash and chop leek, carrots and celery.
  Chop bacon too.
  Eventually warm up cooking liquid of lentils.
• - Prepare your soup.
  Fry slightly leek and bacon in olive oil for some minutes, stirring.
  Add savoy cabbage, carrots and celery, stir and flavor for further few minutes.
  Pour in cooking liquid of lentils but put apart some.
  Continue cooking, about 40 minutes.
  After 20 minutes add mushrooms too.
  Keep the cooking liquid of lentils boiling; add a little if necessary.
  Control if water in the soup is enough to cook pasta, season to taste with salt, add pasta and lentils.
  Cook pasta al dente stage and add other cooking liquid of lentils if necessary.

Just before serving

• - Serve your soup warm or hot and sprinkled with cheese and pepper.

Note

Tips

• - You can serve this soup with toasted slices of bread (in Italian crostini).
• - You can also use frozen mushrooms.
• - For a low-calorie and low-fat recipe I suggest not to use bacon.
  Besides, you can add all ingredients (except oliv oil) together and so you can not fry slightly them. Add olive oil when your soup is cooked.
• - Generally, I use emmer pasta as you can see in the photo for it's rich in fiber.

Menu planning

• - This savoy cabbage and lentil soup is ideal for your family dinner or lunch in winter. It's tasty and healthy.
  Complete your menu with fresh seasonal fruit.

Useful links for this recipe

• - You should be interested in more news about Boletus (porcino) mushrroms.

Healthy eating

• - Nutrition facts of this cabbage and lentil soup is perfect for one-plate meal.
• - The combination lentil and pasta is very healthy and adding savoy cabbage enriches this dish in fiber.
• - Fiber per serving: 13.7 grams.
• - If you want a vegetarian dish, do not add bacon to your soup. In this case the calories are 457, proteins become 23.2 grams and total fat 9.6 grams.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Savoy cabbage and lentil soup "?

My husband and I have the habit to pair Alto Adige Lagrein (red wine from Trentino - Italy) to my cabbage and lentil soup but we rhing Merlot can be another right choice.