Best grains and pulses to add to homemade soups?

[MsFogi]

I make a vat of soup each weekend to eat for lunch all week. I usually just make it out of vegetables but am trying to add more pulses (and grains) to my diet and also think that adding them may ensure I stay full until dinnertime. Can wise MNers suggest which grains and pulses work best in soups (in case it is relevant, I blend the soup smooth so they would need to be okay with being zapped in the blender)?

Lentils are great, and pearl barley if you are cooking it for a long time

Red lentils

Red lentils, beans, pearl barley all used regularly here.

I add a tin of chick.peas to my smooth soups.

Red lentils as said above. They cook down to a puree really.

Cannelini/black/butter beans whizz down to a puree down well too.

Broccoli stalks.

Red lentils, cook in 20 mins and whizz up really smooth . Do bring back to the boil after whizzing to cook out the liberated starch.

Yellow split peas work well, too but do require some forward planning as they cook better for soaking.

If you're making a smooth soup then grains like barley would make it rather thick and gloomy and not really perform a nutritional role any different to some substantial bread. Barley is lovely left whole, though - needs soaking and takes a while to cook but has a lovely chewy texture.

Gloopy

Red lentils thicken up my soups nicely and you can't really taste them so they don't ruin the flavour of my soups

I made a surprisingly nice spiced carrot and chickpea soup last weekend that was smooth and just the right thickness. Wasn't sure it would work as well as it did.

I pre cook pearl soaked pearl barley in the microwave and then add to soups.

Red lentils are great in a chunky vegetable soup.

I use soup mix which has several different dried pulses and beans in.

Urid dal does the same job as red lentils but is paler in colour. Ideal for white soups. Takes about 40 mins to cook

Tinned beans can be added before or after whizzing.

I buy a bag of broth mix with red lentils, split peas, pearl barley and some other pulses that I'm not sure what they are. Soak overnight and then I cook for about 10 mins in microwave before adding to crockpot.

I also put a tin of butter beans in if I have one too.

Blitz it with blender if I don't want a chunkier soup.

To answer @PickAChew
Ever tried being constructive? Or doing some actual cooking?

To everyone else:

For soups with pulses, cook the veg and spices in one pan; at the same time cook your lentils or other pulses with water in a separate pan until they are tender but not mushy. Or use tins and heat with a little water/olive oil.

Use a blender to chop the cooked veg to the smoothness you like; a bit of texture is often a good idea. Very probably, you won't want to blend the pulses very much, if at all. (I never blend lentils, for eg.)If you do, then go gently. Ditto for cooked potatoes. Leave some chunks.

Just before serving, combine the contents of both pans and heat gently until almost but not quite boiling.

Pearl barley and other grains are traditionally not blended at all, just mixed in for a bit of 'bite' with other, mostly clear- broth-like, ingredients

For almost any soup, adding chopped fresh herbs or maybe a scatter of very finely chopped garlic and parsley, or a swirl of olive oil, or toasted/fried croutons for extra texture etc etc is good.

@nameXname Looks to me like PickAChew was correcting her own typo in the previous message.

No need for snark.

Anyway, my lentil/soup tip is to cook the lentils for a good while before salting (incl stock), as this way keeps them softer.

My cooking is excellent, thank you, @nameXnameand there is no gloomy soup in this house.

For almost any soup, adding chopped fresh herbs or maybe a scatter of very finely chopped garlic and parsley, or a swirl of olive oil, or toasted/fried croutons for extra texture etc etc is good.

Definitely. Other ways of enhancing soups:

• grated cheese, especially Stilton
• a glug of (sour) cream
• lemon juice
• garlic fried in olive oil
• cumin and/or coriander fried in butter
• a good dollop of pesto

Add towards the end of cooking.

A chunk of Parmesan rind too.

Bulghar wheat
Quinoa
Any lentil
Pearl Barley is lovely but a bit of a pain, also sucks up all the liquid.

@nameXname ???????????? @PickAChew did nothing wrong. Maybe try actually reading posts before you comment?

@nameXname Have a re-read on the whole thread! @PickAChew did make useful comments, then added a 'gloopy' response when they clearly couldn't edit their origin comment! No need to be rude when it was YOU that didn't read properly!

OP- I was going to suggest barley too. Do you blitz the entire thing smooth due to sensory issues? If not, I'd make the soup, blitz if you want, then add the pearly barley till its cooked, OR cook it separately to add after the blitzing. Potentially chia seeds, but I've never tried it, so not sure how they'd go in a soup?

Mung beans also work well as they are small. Rather than just red lentils try using continental lentils too