Chicken and leek barley soup
A warm chicken soup with soft leeks, carrots and pearl barley.
About 55 min · 405 kcal · 36 g protein per serving
Tomato, red lentil and ricotta soup
A smooth tomato-lentil soup with ricotta stirred through.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 12 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm the lentils collapse in 20 to 25 minutes
- Photograph the finished bowls
- Time
- About 40 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 370 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 20 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chopped tomatoes. Tinned tomatoes vary in added salt; the sodium figure uses a standard salted tin.
- vegetable stock. Vegetable stock often contains celery, and some contain milk or gluten; check the label, especially if you need it vegan.
Cooking steps
Warm the oil in a large pan over medium heat and cook the onion for 5 minutes.
Add the lentils, tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until the lentils have collapsed completely.
Blend to the texture you like, smooth or only partly, filling the blender no more than half full.
Stir a ladleful of the hot soup into the ricotta in a bowl first, then divide the soup between two bowls and spoon the loosened ricotta over, with the basil.
The useful detail
Stir ricotta through a spoonful of warm soup before adding it to the bowl. Cold ricotta dropped into hot soup seizes into grains rather than melting into it.
Make it work for you
One serving is A large bowl with 75 g of ricotta. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Cottage cheese instead of ricotta
More savoury and less smooth; blend it if you want it creamy.
Per serving: about 40 kcal less, about 3 g more protein, about 4 g less fat.
Passata instead of tinned tomatoes
Smoother, so you may not need to blend at all.
Per serving: about 45 kcal more, about 2 g more protein, about the same fat.
Green lentils instead of red
They hold their shape rather than collapsing, so the soup stays chunky. Use about 300 g cooked.
Per serving: about 5 kcal less, about 2 g more protein, about 1 g less fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A thick lentil soup where the ricotta lifts the protein well above what a plain tomato soup would give.
| Energy | 370 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 20 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| of which saturates | 5 g |
| Carbohydrate | 50 g |
| of which sugars | not calculated |
| Fibre | 10 g |
| Sodium | 1,190 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| olive oil | 4.5 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 40 kcal | 0.0 g |
| onion | 60 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 24 kcal | 0.7 g |
| red lentils | 100 g | FDC 174284Lentils, pink or red, raw | 358 kcal | 23.9 g |
| chopped tomatoes | 400 g | FDC 170051Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice | 64 kcal | 3.2 g |
| vegetable stock | 590 g | FDC 171583Soup, vegetable broth, ready to serve | 29 kcal | 1.4 g |
| ricotta | 150 g | FDC 170851Cheese, ricotta, whole milk | 225 kcal | 11.3 g |
| fresh basil | 5 g | FDC 172232Basil, fresh | 1 kcal | 0.2 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 742 kcal | 40.6 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. of which sugars could not be calculated, because one ingredient’s record does not cover it; the row above says which. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool it quickly, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours. The FDA chart gives soups and stews 3 to 4 days. It thickens a good deal; loosen it with stock or water.
- In the freezer
- The same chart gives soups and stews 2 to 3 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout, stirring so it heats evenly.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Butternut, white bean and sage soup
Roasted squash and white beans blended into a smooth sage soup.
About 50 min · 345 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
Vegetarian