Hello lovelies,
what do you do on a grey fall evening when everyone wants lasagna but nobody wants to wait an hour for the oven? Here we make lasagna soup. It tastes of tomato sauce, oregano and Parmesan, just like a lasagna, but it is on the table in 45 minutes and needs no ground meat at all, because red lentils do the work.
Red lentils are a regular guest in my kitchen anyway, they fall apart as they cook and make any soup creamy. If you like them fruity, try my creamy vegan lentil soup with orange, for me it is the perfect winter soup.
Why the noodles cook separately
I break the lasagna sheets into pieces and cook them in a second pot. That keeps them al dente and the soup does not get too thick, not even when you reheat leftovers the next day. In the bowl the wavy pieces of pasta look like little lasagna layers.
If you do have time for a proper lasagna at the weekend, my autumn lasagne with pumpkin and spinach is the big sister of this soup. The soup is the Tuesday night version, for when things need to be quick.
And if you want to taste lasagna the Swiss way, my Swiss alpine lasagne with apple has potatoes, apple and caramelized onions between its layers. Here we alternate between both of them all through the fall.
The balsamic goes in right at the end, together with the spinach. The splash of acidity lifts the tomatoes and rounds the soup off, that is my little trick for every tomato soup.
And if there are green or brown lentils left in the cupboard, my favorite is mujadara with lentils and crispy onions. I would love to hear how the lasagna soup turned out for you.
