Directions

1. Put the lentils, 4 cups of the veggie broth, and the garlic into a large pot. If you have a spice bag, put your rosemary in it and add to the pot. If you don’t have a spice bag, you can tie the rosemary up tightly with kitchen string so the needles don’t break away from the stem and get into the soup too much. Add the rosemary to the pot. Add the salt and pepper.

2. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, until the lentils start to break down. Add the 2 additional cups of veggie broth and cook another 20-25 minutes until the lentils are soft. If the soup looks too thick, add more veggie broth to get it to the consistency you like. I like mine a bit on the thicker side.

3. Remove the rosemary.

4. Remove all of the garlic—you may have to dig around a bit—and 2 cups of the soup and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add this back to the pot and stir to combine. Add more veggie broth if it’s still too thick. You can also use an immersion blender to blend up the garlic and get the lentils to the creaminess you like.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste and maybe a sprinkle of crushed red pepper. Serve with a crusty whole grain bread.

The garlic softens and becomes more mild as it cooks, so even though there are 10 cloves, it’s not overly garlicy. It’s delicious! But if you’d like to cut down on the garlic, remove a few cloves before blending.