pressure cooker lentil soup
I love my pressure cooker and it makes such tasty dishes in no time at all. The original recipe cooking time for this was 25 minutes, but since I live at 5,000 ft. above sea level I upped the time to cook this to 30 minutes. I found the lentils were too hard after being cooked for just 25 minutes. The rule of thumb is for every 1,000 feet above 2,000 ft. above sea level increase the cooking time by 5%. So my increase was 15%. This recipe is so yummy and I added stinging nettles to mine instead of spinach. The flavor of this soup is really good and gets better over time, so make lots! We grow a huge patch of it every year, it's a wonderful super food and goes great in this dish. Just make sure you don't touch the nettles if you do use them. Once they are emerged into the hot soup they lose their sting.
Ingredients
- 1/2 large onion chopped medium
- 4 cloves garlic, pressed
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
- 2 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 medium celery ribs
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup dry lentils, rinsed and cleaned
- 2 medium bay leaves
- 5 1/8 ounces fresh spinach or stinging nettles
How To Make pressure cooker lentil soup
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Step 1In the pressure cooker, sweat the onion and garlic in grapeseed oil until the onions are translucent.
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Step 2Add the carrots and celery and saute for a minute or two.
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Step 3Add the ground cumin and stir well.
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Step 4Add the broth, lentils and bay leaves. Close the pressure cooker and bring up to pressure.
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Step 5Cook for about 25 minutes. If you live at a higher elevation then read the description as to how to adjust your cooking time. I had to do mine at least 30 minutes to compensate for the altitude.
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Step 6Release the steam from the pressure cooker by the quick release method. This means putting it in the sink and running a small stream of water on the lid, but check with your pressure cookers instructions first. You can also let the pressure come down on it's own as well.
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Step 7Remove the bay leaves. If using the spinach add it to the soup and stir until it wilts, this should take only a few minutes. The heat from the soup will wilt it very easy. Same if you use stinging nettles, it wilts easy also.
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Step 8Season with salt and pepper if you like.
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Step 9Enjoy!
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