Well, the ingredients start green. I suppose it’s more greenish-brown once cooked. But “hey, would you like to try my greenish-brown soup?” will probably not get many answers in the affirmative.
If I correctly recall, the genesis of this soup was some endive that needed to be used up and somehow that morphed into adding whatever other green ingredients I could locate in my kitchen, which is how I chose mung beans and green bell pepper. I finished with my favorite seasoning combo of the moment, and here we are.
Green Soup
- olive oil
- 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ medium onion, finely diced
- 1 medium green bell pepper, finely diced
- ¾ cup mung beans
- 6 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon ground sumac
- 1½ teaspoons ground coriander
- 1¼ teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes
- 2½ cups chopped curly endive/frisée
- 3 tablespoons white basmati rice
- Heat a large pot over medium heat. Coat the bottom of the pot with oil. Add the garlic, onion, and green pepper. Sweat for 5 minutes, until softened.
- Add the beans, broth, and spices. Cover and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low, and simmer for 1 to 1¼ hours, until the beans are soft.
- Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. Add the endive and rice. Simmer until the rice is cooked, about 15 minutes. Serve.
Serves 6
In keeping with the green theme, my first trials of this soup used bamboo rice, which is short-grained rice that has been soaked in bamboo juice to give the rice a green color. I then ran out of the rice and couldn’t find more at the store. And I didn’t want to wait to order more online because I wanted to get this recipe finished for you. So I switched to basmati. Check it out if it interests you though. It is very pretty.
Mung beans, like lentils, do not require soaking before cooking, making them good for spur of the moment dishes. Look for them in Asian grocery stores. Or online. Or if you’re thinking “Kalinda, we both know this soup is already brown,” go ahead and substitute lentils.
Sumac is a spice commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking. It has a tangy lemony taste. Look for it at specialty spice shops (I found mine at Penzey’s) or again, online.
The rice will continue to absorb the broth. If you’re planning on cooking it longer or reheating leftovers the next day, plan to add more liquid. Or enjoy a beans and rice dish instead of a soup.
This recipe is being shared in Allergy Free Wednesdays, Gluten Free Wednesdays, Gluten Free Fridays, and My Legume Love Affair created by The Well-Seasoned Cook.
Looks and sounds delish, even if it’s not completely green, Kalinda. But here’s a tip for you, if you want soup green, just add some broccoli early in the process. It really makes the entire soup very green! I used to add leftover broccoli to my freezer container of veggies for making my “Everything Soup” and had to eventually give up adding broccoli to that particular container because it made the soup so green that Mr. GFE and Son would not eat it! LOL, but true. ;-)
Shirley
Haha, wouldn’t want to eat anything too green. It might be healthy!
Haha! The whole soup was like Kermit the Frog green! ;-)
I bought some mung beans a while ago on the spur of the moment (they are nice), but have yet to figure out how to use them. Thank you for the suggestion. I see enough green in that soup to accept its title. Happy New Year!
I understand that. I think I have a compulsion to buy new ingredients I haven’t used before. Of course, then you need to figure out how to use them. I should probably start coming up with recipe ideas by cleaning out my pantry.
What a beautiful soup! Would love to have you share it at Gluten Free Fridays! Its live now! Cindy :)
Thanks for the reminder Cindy!
Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays Party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! :) I can’t wait to see what you share next time!
-Cindy
I made the soup last night, with some small alterations: it was delicious!! What a great use of curly endive, not my favourite veg, but once in a while in my organic veg box and now I have this great recipe to use it up.
I loved the tanginess of the sumac,
thanks, Linda
Wonderful! I must admit, curly endive is not my favorite either. But you’re right, it does kind of disappear into the soup. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.
I love anything with mung beans and the seasoning here is excellent. Thanks for sharing with MLLA. I’m a bit late with the roundup this month, but it is coming soon.
Awesome, can’t wait to see it.
Hi Kalinda,
since I discovered your soup I have made it many times :-)
I made loads of variations too and today I placed one on my blog, with yours as my inspiration of course!
thanks, Linda