Reviewed: Mar. 8, 2011

I omitted salt from the seasoning packet. When I cooked up the soup, I used only 8 cups of water, knowing that I like thick stews. I added 2 carrots, a sliced clove of garlic, and 2 kale leaves. This was ready to serve in 35 minutes. There are so many possibilities of adding additional veggies! Next time I will cut the amount of pepper in half for the sake of DH, but I enjoyed the amount in the recipe!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
4 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

sueb

Supporting Member (Click to learn more about Supporting Membership)

Cooking Level: Expert

Living In: Prattville, Alabama, USA

Reviewed: Mar. 1, 2011

i don't know if i did something wrong, or what, but this did not turn out well. this is the first thing i've made in years that we just could not eat. i litteraly labled the leftovers as fail sauce, to warn my roommates it wasn't any good. i was hoping there would be some way to salave it, but i eneded up having to throw it out. luckily the ingredients were cheep.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
5 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

nyghteshadow

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Nov. 27, 2010

I wanted to do a soup-in-a-jar mix for colleagues and less-close friends, and I'm glad I tried this before I just "wrapped" it. The original recipe is gelatinous and downright gross. I tweaked it a bit, and it was delicious the second time around. I omitted rice (since that's what made it so sticky) while keeping the same water amount, doubled the garlic powder, used cumin instead of sage, and added 1/4 cup chicken stock powder (would have preferred beef but grocery was out). I also sauteed the onion in olive oil before adding lentils/barley/peas. So good. The changes are easy enough to put in instructions, so I'll give out my tweaked version.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
13 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

TiffanyK

Reviewed: Oct. 25, 2010

Very yummy! It has enough flavor that you don't even miss that it doesn't have meat.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
10 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Dannysgirl

Reviewed: May 11, 2010

I rarely give out one's, but sorry, I just had to this time. I started making this as is, except I used regular garlic power instead of granulated. (From what I can tell, granulated is the same as powdered but bigger pieces, like salt.) I then DOUBLED all the spices except the salt and it still tasted like flavored water. (Bland isn't the proper word. And I don't know how anyone could think the pepper or sage were over-powering. I tasted about nothing.) I did notice at least a couple of the 5's are people who doctored it up. I started adding some bouillon just cause I couldn't see more spices doing anything, and ended up adding 5 bouillon cubes. That finally made it "reasonable." I had both barley & lentils I needed to use up, plus I like having a big pot of soup that I can eat for 2-3 days -- so it seemed like a bright idea to make the whole recipe even just for me, but sorry I did.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
7 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Erimess

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Dec. 16, 2009

I really enjoyed the soup. I thought the pepper would be over whelming, so I cut it in half (most recipes seem to have a 2:1 ratio of salt to pepper). My children didn't care for the strong sage flavor, but I enjoyed it. I also used brown rice instead of white. To give the gift jars more color, I used 1/4 c green and 1/4 c yellow split peas as well as 1/4 c red lentils and 1/4 c regular lentils. I found some 3" x 4" clear treat bags in the wedding section at Walmart for the spice packet. I tied with ribbon and used a cute holiday gift tag I found on a scrapbooking site for free (shabbyprincess.com). I put the instructions on the back of the tag. Overall I really like this recipe and would make it again as well as give it away!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
15 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Brandi

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Dec. 27, 2008

I made this soup "as is" since I planned on giving it out as gifts and I wanted us to try it the way it was presented. It is a good soup, and makes a LOT. For us personally, next time I will doctor it up a bit, add more garlic, maybe some bouillon, etc. For leftovers we added smoked sausage. I picked it over the myriad of soup mixes because it could be given to my vegetarian friends, and because it was so simple. Look for red lentils if you can find them. It was pretty in the jar, and well received. I put the spices in a snack-sized ziplock bag and stuffed it in the top of the jar. It all fit very nicely. I also used brown rice instead of white rice. Just a personal preference.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
22 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

JFRESNO

Cooking Level: Expert

Reviewed: Jun. 22, 2008

After reading the other reviews I used the recipe as a base. I fried 2 onions and 2 teaspoons of fresh garlic in the pot before adding the other ingredients. I added a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder, one chopped chilli, a cup of dried chickpeas, some fresh herbs from the garden eg parsley, oregano & basil, and a tin of crushed tomatoes. I also used a cup of pasta which I added at the end of the cooking time instead of the rice. I had to add an extra 4 cups of water during cooking. NB: The pepper is not overwhelming! This is a great winter soup!

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
18 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Melissa Letham

Reviewed: Jul. 12, 2007

A good basic soup, but I found it bland. I would recommend increasing the seasoning. However, a friend to whom I gave this "jar mix" loved the soup.

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
18 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

nutcracker

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Dec. 28, 2006

I have received this soup as a gift twice in the past few years. The first time I prepared it, I had to force it down because the black pepper was overpowering for the quantity of soup it made. I received a jar again this month and did not realize it was the exact same soup with the exact same pepper problem until I tasted it last night and had deja vu. I wonder if there was a pepper typo error when the recipe got circulated over the years? Maybe I am the only one who finds the pepper overwhelming when the soup is prepared according to the directions without any alterations or additions?

Was this review helpful? [ YES ]
17 users found this review helpful