This vegan soup is chock-full of ingredients like swiss chard, lentils, and cauliflower. It's a great meal prep recipe!
This soup is a perfect one to keep you warm on a cold winter night. Even though it's vegan, it has tons of ingredients to fill you up.
One of the main ingredients in this soup is swiss chard, so I wanted to explain swiss chard a bit more, what it is, what it tastes like etc.
What is swiss chard?
It is a dark green leafy vegetable, and it's in the same family as beets and spinach. It has very large crinkly leaves with celery-like stalks.
What does it taste like?
Swiss chard tastes a bit like spinach, although it has a more earthy, natural flavor than spinach. When compared to kale in flavor, it's more approachable and it's definitley less of an acquired taste. It's also quite mild in flavor - nothing too strong especially when cooked, like in this recipe.
What part of swiss chard do you eat?
Both! You can eat the stems and the leaves. The stems take a bit longer to cook than the leaves, but will become tender when cooked.
Can it be eaten raw?
Yes - it can be mixed with other salad greens, just keep in mind that it may be a bit bitter.
Varieties of swiss chard
Chard is actually the blanket term - and swiss chard falls into this chard category.
The leaves on all the chards look the same, it's just that the color of the stalks/stems affects the name.
The most common varieties of chard are:
- swiss chard - the most common type with green leaves and white stalks
- red chard - green leaves and red stalks and veins throughout
- rainbow chard - multicolored stalks - think yellow, red, and orange!
Phew! I hope that helped explain swiss chard a bit! Now on to the soup!
What's in this soup?
- Swiss Chard
- Green lentils
- Rosemary
- Bay Leaf
- Cauliflower
- Vegetable stock
- Ditalini (small pasta)
How to make swiss chard soup - step by step
Bring a pot of water to boil. Once water boils, add the ditalini, and cook them until tender. This step can be done while preparing the rest of the soup.
Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil. When olive oil is heated and shimmering, add the onions (photo 1)
Sauté the onions until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the lentils, rosemary and bay leaf to the pot. Season with salt and pepper (photo 2)
Give the ingredients a good stir, and add the cauliflower. Add the vegetable stock (photos 3 & 4)
Partially cover the pot with a lid and let it simmer over medium heat. Simmer for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until the lentils are tender, but not soft. They will cook for approximately another 5 minutes after this step. Season with more salt and pepper if needed (photos 5 & 6)
Add chard to the pot and stir. Cook the chard for 3-5 minutes, or until tender (photo 7)
Add the ditalini and give the soup a good stir (photo 8)
Spoon the soup into bowls, garnish with parsley or parmesan cheese and enjoy!
Top tips to make this soup:
- I used red chard in this recipe, but regular swiss chard with the white stem works well too.
- I used green lentils in this recipe, but you can use any type of lentil variety you'd like.
- Red lentils cook the quickest out of all the lentil varieties, so if you are using this lentil type, you may have to adjust the cook time on the lentils (ie cook then longer). This also means you may have to throw in the cauliflower a bit after the lentils, or else the cauliflower will be mushy.
- You can omit the pasta from this recipe and the soup will still be delicious!
- This soup is very chunky and hearty. If you prefer your soup with more liquid in it, you can add more vegetable stock at the beginning. Or if you notice the soup is too thick while cooking at any stage, you can add warm water to the recipe.
- As this soup sits once cooked, the pasta will absorb more liquid, making the soup thicker. Once again, feel free to add warm water to thin it out if desired.
Other Italian soup and pasta recipes you might like:
- Pasta e ceci (Italian chickpea soup)
- Asparagus pasta with peas and pancetta
- Nonna's Pasta Pomodoro
If you’ve tried making this Swiss Chard Soup, or any other recipe on the blog please let me know what you thought of it, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’ve been up to.
Recipe
Swiss Chard Soup with Lentils and Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1 cup ditalini pasta or any other small pasta
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ¾ cup onion cut into small pieces
- 1 cup dry green lentils rinsed
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary cut into small pieces
- 1 bay leaf
- 7 cups vegetable stock
- 4 cups cauliflower cut into florets
- 2 cups swiss chard leaves only, and packed tightly
- salt and pepper to taste
- parsley or parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Once water boils, add the ditalini, and cook them until tender., and drain them from the water. This step can be done while preparing the rest of the soup.
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil. When olive oil is heated and shimmering, add the onions.
- Sauté the onions until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the lentils, rosemary and bay leaf to the pot. Season with salt and pepper.
- Give the ingredients a good stir, and add the cauliflower. Add the vegetable stock.
- Partially cover the pot with a lid and let it simmer over medium heat. Simmer for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until the lentils are tender, but not soft. They will cook for approximately another 5 minutes after this step. Season with more salt and pepper if needed.
- Add chard to the pot and stir. Cook the chard for 3-5 minutes, or until tender.
- Add the ditalini and give the soup a good stir.
- Discard the bay leaf. Spoon the soup into bowls, garnish with parsley or parmesan cheese and enjoy!
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- I used red chard in this recipe, but regular swiss chard with the white stem works well too.
- I used green lentils in this recipe, but you can use any type of lentil variety you'd like.
- Red lentils cook the quickest out of all the lentil varieties, so if you are using this lentil type, you may have to adjust the cook time on the lentils (ie cook them longer). This also means you may have to throw in the cauliflower a bit after the lentils, or else the cauliflower will be mushy.
- You can omit the pasta from this recipe and the soup will still be delicious!
- This soup is very chunky and hearty. If you prefer your soup with more liquid in it, you can add more vegetable stock at the beginning. Or if you notice the soup is too thick while cooking at any stage, you can add warm water to the recipe.
- As this soup sits once cooked, the pasta will absorb more liquid, making the soup thicker. Once again, feel free to add warm water to thin it out if desired.
- This soup will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for 5 days.
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