Woodall's Campgrounds, RV Blog and Family Camping Blog » Another Delicious Camping Meal

- Woodall's Campgrounds, RV Blog and Family Camping Blog - http://blog.woodalls.com -

Another Delicious Camping Meal–Lentil Soup!

Posted By Diane Berry On February 29, 2012 @ 8:30 am In Comfort at Camp,Menu Planning & Cooking,Traveling Tips | 2 Comments

In a previous post, I wrote about using Bear Creek or some other commercially prepared soup mixes to create some hot and filling camping meals. Today, I want to tell you about another great soup, but one that’s made from scratch: Lentil Soup. I am a great fan of the Bear Creek soups; but still feel the need to make a good pot of lentil soup several times a year. It is every bit as tasty as the commercial soups and takes only a bit longer to prepare as the lentils cook up pretty quickly.

Ingredients are as follows:

^[1]

Start with some fresh and dried vegetables...

1 lb. bag of lentils
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
5-10 small carrots, chopped
^[2]
Add lentils and ham bone...
dried mushrooms, if desired
1 can petite diced tomatoes
6 cups water (to start, I always add a cup or two more)
3-6 tsps chicken soup base (1 use 3-4 to maximize
^[3]
And some tomatoes and spices, and voila!

taste and minimize sodium)
ham bone
1 ham slice, cubed
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste

My original recipe began with adding water, lentils and soup base to a Dutch oven and adding remaining ingredients from there. However, over the years, I have realized you can enhance taste and shorten cooking time by sautéing the onion, garlic, carrots, celery and mushrooms in 1-2 tbsps of olive oil before adding the water and lentils.

^[4]Once veggies are prepared, add water and lentils, plus soup base to taste, tomatoes, ham bone and spices. Whenever I bake a ham, I save the bone and freeze it for my next pot of soup. When I make soup and find no ham bone in the freezer, we simply buy a ham slice with the bone in. Also, one benefit of making this soup from scratch over the commercial varieties is that you can control the sodium content. If sodium is a concern, either purchase a low sodium chicken soup base, reduce the quantity used, or both.

Bring all ingredients to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes until veggies are tender. Sautéing the vegetables first reduces the original cooking time by about an hour, so you can quickly throw this soup together after a busy day filled with camping activities, and it will be ready for your hungry crew in less than an hour! A few minutes before serving, add the cubed ham to warm it through. Serve with crusty bread. Bon appétit!

For more information about camping check out Woodall’s for more camping ^[5] articles.

Soup Is Good (Camping) Food! ^[6]
Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: My Favorite “Crockpot… ^[7]
Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Montana’s Soup Nazi: If… ^[8]
Our Top Five “Berry Best” Camp Meals ^[9]
Healthier Meals at Camp ^[10]
Powered by Contextual Related Posts ^[11]

Last 5 posts by Diane Berry

Racing the Chama Chili Ski Classic ^[12] - February 17th, 2013
Another Winter Family Adventure ^[13] - February 10th, 2013
A Winter Family Adventure! ^[14] - February 3rd, 2013
The Forest in Winter ^[15] - January 27th, 2013
A Lookout in Winter ^[16] - January 20th, 2013

^[17]

^[18]

^[19]

^[20]

^[21]

^[22]

^[23]

^[24]

Article printed from Woodall's Campgrounds, RV Blog and Family Camping Blog: http://blog.woodalls.com

URL to article: http://blog.woodalls.com/2012/02/another-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup/

URLs in this post:

[1] Image: http://blog.woodalls.com/2012/02/another-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup/veggies-2/

[2] Image: http://blog.woodalls.com/2012/02/another-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup/lentils-and-ham/

[3] Image: http://blog.woodalls.com/2012/02/another-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup/spices/

[4] Image: http://blog.woodalls.com/2012/02/another-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup/the-finished-product/

[5] camping: http://www.woodalls.com/

[6] Soup Is Good (Camping) Food!: http://blog.woodalls.com/2012/01/soup-is-good-camping-food/

[7] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: My Favorite “Crockpot…: http://blog.woodalls.com/2011/08/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-my-favorite-%e2%80%9ccrockpot-italian-sausage-soup%e2%80%9d/

[8] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Montana’s Soup Nazi: If…: http://blog.woodalls.com/2011/11/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-montana%e2%80%99s-soup-nazi-if-you-hate-spicy-curry-stop-reading-and-look-for-a-recipe-that-features-pablum/

[9] Our Top Five “Berry Best” Camp Meals: http://blog.woodalls.com/2010/03/our-top-five-berry-best-camp-meals/

[10] Healthier Meals at Camp: http://blog.woodalls.com/2010/12/healthier-meals-at-camp/

[11] Contextual Related Posts: http://ajaydsouza.com/wordpress/plugins/contextual-related-posts/

[12] Racing the Chama Chili Ski Classic: http://blog.woodalls.com/2013/02/racing-the-chama-chili-ski-classic/

[13] Another Winter Family Adventure: http://blog.woodalls.com/2013/02/another-winter-family-adventure/

[14] A Winter Family Adventure!: http://blog.woodalls.com/2013/02/a-winter-family-adventure/

[15] The Forest in Winter: http://blog.woodalls.com/2013/01/the-forest-in-winter/

[16] A Lookout in Winter: http://blog.woodalls.com/2013/01/a-lookout-in-winter/

[17] Image: http://slashdot.org/bookmark.pl?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F&title=Another+Delicious+Camping+Meal%26%238211%3BLentil+Soup%21

[18] Image: http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F&title=Another+Delicious+Camping+Meal%26%238211%3BLentil+Soup%21

[19] Image: http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F&title=Another+Delicious+Camping+Meal%26%238211%3BLentil+Soup%21

[20] Image: http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F&title=Another+Delicious+Camping+Meal%26%238211%3BLentil+Soup%21

[21] Image: http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F

[22] Image: http://technorati.com/faves?add=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F

[23] Image: http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&output=popup&bkmk=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F&title=Another+Delicious+Camping+Meal%26%238211%3BLentil+Soup%21

[24] Image: http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.woodalls.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fanother-delicious-camping-meal-lentil-soup%2F&title=Another+Delicious+Camping+Meal%26%238211%3BLentil+Soup%21

Click here to print.