Larry’s Famous Red Lentil Soup with Chicken

This may be out of order and I will post the recipes I mentioned earlier that I did on my frenzied meal assembly day, but I wanted to post another recipe that we (Larry) make often and freeze - Larry's fabulous Red Lentil Chicken Soup. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3-4 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on
10 cups water or more
1 medium carrot, diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic
½ cup (or 3-4) fresh tomatoes, diced
Large pinch: ground saffron and ground ginger
¼ to ½ t crushed red pepper flakes
Salt to taste, about 2 ½ tsp.
1 ½ cups red lentils, rinsed twice in cold water (very important)
Egg noodles

Directions:

1. Put chicken breasts in a 4-to 5-quart pot; add water to cover. Heat to boil, reduce to a simmer and skim off any foam that rises to surface. When foam subsides, cover partly and simmer until chicken starts to fall off the bone.

2. Remove the chicken from the broth and pull off the bone. Shred the meat. Discard bone and skin.

3. While you are shredding the chicken, add the red lentils to the broth (don’t forget to rinse twice before adding).

4. Add the garlic, tomatoes, all the spices and the chicken to the broth. Salt and pepper to taste. (Jane’s Crazy Mixed Up Salt is fabulous - http://www.janeskrazy.com/home.asp - a favorite of Mom Vassallo’s!)

5. Bring to a boil again and reduce to a simmer, cover partly. Simmer gently until the veggies are soft and lentils are disintegrating, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. To prevent scorching, stir frequently and add more water as necessary.

6. In a separate pot boil water for the egg noodles. I add the pasta to the individual soup bowls and not in the soup pot because the pasta tends to get mushy.

7. Top individual servings with salt and pepper to taste; great with shredded parmesan.

8. Let soup completely cool before putting in the refrigerator.

For Freezer Meals: Let soup completely cool and then divide up into small containers for the freezer.