I have been reading Mike Clelland's new book Ultralight Backpackin' Tips and one of the recipes calls for instant lentil soup mix (supposedly available in bulk at health food stores). Unfortunately, I just spent half a day driving around town looking for it - nobody in my town stocks it.

Oh, I know, the internet will have it! Yeah, right, I just spent an hour looking for instant lentil soup mix on the internet and the best I could do was this product:

MJF Organic Lentil Soup

$6.75 for 1.5 servings or $223 for 15 lbs. *sigh*

Can anyone recommend a source where I can buy instant lentil soup mix, preferably natural or organic and in bulk (not 15lbs. of it).

Thanks!

(Mike, I'm lovin' the book, by the way)

Edited by nkline on 09/29/2011 16:43:48 MDT.

Well...what you are looking for was commonly sold at health food stores with bulk sections. This is often the brand in those bins:
http://www.tasteadventure.com/products/soups/index.htm#curry

What will also work is http://www.nilespice.com/products/index.php which many grocery stores stock in the soup aisle.

If you need a recipe for making a FBC lentil soup mix let me know, I have one in our upcoming book 2 I can send you! (I think I actually have 2 or 3....)

Also....you can buy precooked and dried lentils from www.harmonyhousefoods.com - they are fantastic I might add and will even rehdyrate with cool water. It is what I use in my lentil recipes. Cheap and tasty! Get the BIG container!

"$6.75 for 1.5 servings"

That seems excessively expensive.

If I am browsing around a really good grocery store, I will find dehydrated soup in a paper cup, and once in a while there will be lentil type. The price is typically $1 to $2 per cup.

I empty the contents into my own plastic bag and take it on the trail that way.

--B.G.--

Bob, those cups you mention are usually the Nile Spice brand although some stores will stock a generic brand as well. I have found that at large drug stores you can get them cheap often.....sometimes even Big Lots.

Yes, Nile Spice or a similar brand.

The only problem with buying them in a cut-rate store is that they may be somewhat stale. On the other hand, dehydrated soup mix seems a little stale when it is new. Some have date codes marked.

--B.G.--

I found some at a health food store. The store itself had packaged the soups into 1 pound bags for about $7 per pound. They also had the black bean soup and corn chowder. So the health food stores may have it, just not in bulk bins.

And out West ... the WinCo chain also carries it in bulk as well!

My local stores have a curry lentil soup mix and a pre-spiced black bean mix that both work with a cook-in-the-bag style dinner. $5 per lb.

Edited by Djrez4 on 09/29/2011 20:28:20 MDT.

If you have a dehydrator you can simply make lentil soup at home and dehydrate it. It's tastier, cheaper, and you'll save a lot of time by not having to run around looking for product. I can post my recipe if you like.

I'm headed out the door on a camping trip though and won't be home until after the weekend but send me a pm to remind me to post it - if you want a recipe that is. Okay... I'm rambling... pre-camping excitement (like a kid).

Have you checked Whole Foods (If a WF is near where ever you live)?

I live near two Whole Foods markets and neither sells lentil soup mix - wow. So, I ordered Taste Adventure's Curry Lentil Soup online instead. Amazon.com sells it, too, in case you are already shopping there.

Thanks for all the help :-)

It is very tasty, glad to see Amazon is carrying it as well!

In Arizona, Basha's grocery stores have dried lentil soup mix in the bulk food bins.