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Mom's lentil soup recipe vs. the one I make now
My mom used to toss in whatever leftover ham bone was in the freezer and let it simmer for hours. Now I just use a $2 bag of dried lentils, some bouillon cubes from Aldi, and it's done in 40 minutes flat. Has anyone else noticed their version tastes totally different but costs way less?
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the_christopher4d agoMost Upvoted
Feeling you hard on this one, @hannahsingh. My mom was the same way with her bean soup, always had this random pork chop bone or something lurking in the freezer that she'd simmer for half a day. My version uses smoked paprika and a squirt of ketchup to fake some of that depth, and honestly, it's close enough for a Tuesday night. It's wild how our shortcuts are basically a different food entirely from the slow cooked originals, but we're both just trying to get dinner on the table without a whole production.
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leodavis4d ago
@hannahsingh you'd be surprised what folks keep in their freezers, my aunt still has one from a pig roast in 2019. The real trick is roasting a cheap chicken leg in the oven first, deglazes the pan right into the lentils for that meaty depth without needing a bone around.
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hannahsingh4d ago
Wait, your mom used a ham bone? Like, a literal bone with leftover meat on it? I've only ever seen those in fancy cooking blogs, not in real people's freezers. I mean, I get the appeal, but I can't imagine the time and effort of dealing with that when a $1 bag of lentils and some Better Than Bouillon does the job in a fraction of the time. Honestly, my version (same as yours, basically) probably tastes more like salty broth than that rich, bone-simmered stuff she must have gotten.
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