Love this soup! I chopped carrots and added chopped celery and minced garlic. I sauteed it in canola oil, although olive oil would have been fine. I also used vegetable broth instead of water. I doubled the recipe by using a 16 oz. bag of lentils & added a 6 oz. bag of fresh baby spinach at the end. I figure if I'm going to do all the work, I might as well make a big batch & freeze it in individual serving containers. What I would strongly suggest is to add LESS salsa. You can always add more to suit your taste. For a double batch, I used one and a quarter cup of medium salsa & this just added enough tang for my family. Someone else might like it spicier.

Reviewed On: Jan. 4, 2011

I wanted to try this recipe as the additions of an apple & barbeque sauce sounded interesting. My main suggestion is to add less barbeque sauce & increase it according to your personal taste. It's much easier to add more than to try to dilute an ingredient that's overwhelming. Anyway, I only added 1/8 cup of barbeque sauce & that was plenty for my family. I substituted 32 oz. chicken broth for the water, omitted the vegetable boulllion, added diced celery, & substituted a can of petite diced tomatoes for the fresh ones as I had that on hand. I added the carrots with the lentils & cooked the soup for longer than it said. The last thing I did was to add the peas at the end of the cooking time as I didn't want them to get too mushy. Next time, I'll use an entire bag of Goya lentils, double the recipe, & freeze some containers of soup.

Reviewed On: Jan. 8, 2010

I'm rating this 5 stars IF you reduce the amount of mayo by half. I rinsed the artichoke hearts & the pimintoes separately under cold water to get rid of any excess salt. You should make sure they're drained well so the dip isn't watery. I substituted 1 tsp garlic powder for the diced garlic. Finally I didn't bother with the tomato & scallion garnish, although I'm sure it would have added some nice color. The main point though is that I doubled the recipe (using a total of only 1 cup mayo when doubling it) & it was a huge success at a party I attended last night. People told me it was yummy & I even was askd for the recipe. I asked the hostess, after I told her the secret ingredient was feta) whether she thought it might be better with a garlic & herb feta or a tomato & basil flavored one. She said it was perfect the way it was.

Reviewed On: Oct. 21, 2007