Frugal Food: Lentil Soup with Goat Cheese

We had this for dinner last night: it's cheap, delicious, healthy, and doesn't take more than half an hour to put together from start to finish. I recommend it highly.

Pick over and rinse a bag of lentils. Bring 7 cups water to a boil in a big saucepan, add the lentils, and boil for twenty minutes. Chop up a big white or yellow onion. At about the fifteen-minute mark on the boiling, start sauteeing the onion in a smidge of olive oil, with two pinches of salt. Do this in the big pot that will eventually hold all the soup. When the onion is tender and translucent, dump in one 28-oz. can of crushed tomatoes, the (drained) lentils, and two cups water or stock (I used stock; water is obviously more frugal). Bring the soup up to a simmer and add half a bag of frozen spinach (or any other leafy green: kale, chard, whatever). Bring the soup up to a simmer again and adjust the seasoning to taste: I added lots of black pepper, some cumin, and some salt.

Top with some chunks of goat cheese (optional, obviously: you could also use yogurt, or a drizzle of olive oil, or a poached egg). They melt slightly and are super-delicious, and also bolster the fillingness of the soup (the cheese adds protein and fat—an egg would do the exact same thing for much less money).

The lentils cost $.99, the onion cost about $.80, the tomatoes cost $1.29, the stock cost $2.29, and half a bag of spinach cost about $1.20. An 8-oz. package of goat cheese cost $4; we used about a third of it on two servings, so let's say the whole thing, if you want to go there.

The total of the ingredients (including the optional stock and cheese) is $10.57. This provides six generous main-course servings, and, especially with the cheese, is really filling (also, somewhat obviously, really good for you), so the cost per serving of the "deluxe" version is $1.75. The pared-down version (or even substituting bullion for prepared stock and an egg for the cheese) is much cheaper.