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A finished bowl of soup, topped with a spoonful of finely grated hard cheese.
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Vegetable Tortellini Soup with Lentils

An easy hearty soup featuring packaged gluten free tortellini.
Prep Time10 minutes
Active Time50 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Gluten free, Lentils, Pasta
Yield: 2

Materials

  • 2 small onions or one larger
  • 1-2 stalks celery optional but recommended
  • 1-2 medium carrots
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 100 g kale or collard greens (or 4 oz./¼ lb.)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 75 ml dry green or brown lentils (or ¼ cup)
  • 1 liter broth of your choice (or a quart)
  • 250 g packaged fresh/frozen tortellini of your choice (or 8 oz./½ lb.)
  • 200 ml chunky pasta sauce or canned chopped tomatoes (half a 400g/14 oz. can of tomatoes, or just under a cup of either one)

Seasonings

  • ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
  • ⅓ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ½ teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
  • salt and pepper to taste

To Serve

  • grated Parmesan or Romano type cheese

Instructions

Preparation

  • Assemble your ingredients, starting with the vegetables and lentils.
    This is a home-frozen package of refrigerated gluten free meat filled tortellini (beef), which is sitting out to thaw some while I do the other prep.
    Major ingredients laid out on a white cutting board, including a bag of lentils, a carrot, two small onions, a head of garlic, a partial bag of frozen chopped kale, and a package of fresh tortellini
  • Cut your veggies into soup-sized pieces, however you like. We're aiming for about 30 minutes of cooking time for most of them. Adjust as needed for your size pieces, or if you want them less tender.
    We did not have celery today, though I would include some if we did. We're also using frozen chopped kale, with around 100g left in the bag as it turned out.
  • Set the onion and celery to one side with your chopped or crushed garlic to use first, with the carrots and greens ready to go in later.
  • Also set the broth and tomato components ready to use.
    Today, I am using part of the recent homemade chicken broth, mixed half and half with Knorr vegetable bouillon. It'll be good with whatever broth you prefer. We also had an open jar of chunky Arrabiata sauce, so I am just using that instead of opening a can of chopped tomatoes.
    A large Pyrex measuring cup of homemade chicken broth sits next to a mostly full jar of Arrabiata pasta sauce and a box of Knorr vegetable bouillon cubes. Behind it all sits the intended soup pot.
  • Assemble your seasonings.
    I was using the already seasoned pasta sauce, so you might want to increase the herbs a bit if you're using canned tomatoes. Same goes for the salt, and any other seasonings that might apply.
    Containers of dried red chili flakes, rosematy, thyme, and oregano.
  • Rinse your lentils well in a strainer, looking through them for anything like small rocks or stray grains mixed in. (Particularly important if you need to avoid gluten!)
    Shake excess water off, and set aside.

Cooking

  • Sauté the onions and optional celery in olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan of at least 2L capacity..
    Again, we're not looking to get them particularly soft now, just cooked until they start turning translucent for the flavor. Add the chopped garlic, and continue frying for another minute or so.
    A pan with translucent sautéed onions and garlic.
  • Add in the broth, bay leaf, pepper, and lentils. I would also add the red pepper flakes at this point, if I were not using the pasta sauce later on with some chile already in it.
    Bring to a boil.
    A metal mesh strainer of washed lentils poised to pour into a pot of broth with the initial seasonings floating on the surface.
  • Simmer the lentils, covered, for 15 minutes. We're aiming for 45 minutes total with these before the tomatoes go into the soup and seriously slow further cooking.
  • Add the carrot and greens, along with the rosemary and thyme.. Bring back to the boil, then simmer covered for another 30 minutes.
    These particular frozen greens came chopped much more finely than I prefer, or how that brand usually comes. It doesn't look nearly as good this way, but I'm sure it will taste just fine.
    The soup with all ingredients so far added in.
  • After the 30 minutes are up, evaluate the lentils for doneness. These were soft all the way through, but not falling completely apart--which is what I was aiming for. Simmer for a few more minutes at a time as needed, until everything is done to your liking.
  • Once the lentils are fully cooked, add the tomato component and oregano.
    The soup pot with tomato sauce added, changing the broth color.
  • Bring back to a boil, then simmer for another 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to your taste.
    This is a good point to hold the soup until you're wanting to eat very soon. Resting will only improve the flavor. I ended up letting this sit for nearly an hour before we were ready to eat.
  • Bring the soup back up to a boil, and stir in the tortellini. Keep it at a high simmer or low boil for maybe 3 minutes, then test a piece for doneness.
    This needed about 5 minutes to my liking. The fresh pasta does cook very quickly.
    The soup with pasta just added in.
  • Looking good! Time to eat.
    Finished soup with softer pasta which has absorbed more liquid floating in it.
  • Sprinkle on some grated hard cheese to serve, as you like. Tonight we had some refrigerated pre-grated Grana Padano.
    A finished bowl of soup, topped with a spoonful of finely grated hard cheese.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

This soup is easily made vegetarian if you use vegetable broth and a vegetarian stuffed pasta.