Spicy Red Lentil Soup
I’ve become quite adept at making lentil soup. But, I decided to change it up this time by adding different spices and only using red lentils. My original version from Epicurious has puy (french green) and red lentils and spices like rosemary, bay leaf, and thyme. This is a spicy version of the original with curry, cumin and coriander. Since, red lentils are quicker to cook than other varieties, I shortened the cooking time. It also seemed that red lentils soak up more liquid than the puy variety because this soup ended up being a bit too thick for my tastes. So, for the recipe I decreased the amount of lentils from 1 ¼ cups to 1 cup.
Spicy Red Lentil Soup
Makes 6 servings
Ingredients
2 Tbsp extra–virgin olive oil
2 medium chopped onion (red or yellow)
1 cup chopped celery stalks
1 cup chopped carrots
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp ginger, finely chopped or ground ginger
3 ½ cups to 4 ½ cups vegetable broth (I like homemade or Trader Joe’s vegetable broth)
1 cup red lentils, rinsed, drained
1 can (14 oz) of diced tomatoes in juice (or 2 tomatoes, chopped)
1 ½ tsp madras curry powder
½ tsp cumin, coriander
Zest of half a lemon
Preparation
Either hand chop veggies or use food processor. Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, garlic, ginger; sauté until vegetables for about 15 minutes. Add curry powder, cumin and coriander and sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add 3 ½ cups broth, lentils, tomatoes with juice and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium–low, cover, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 25 to 30 minutes. While the soup is simmering, add more broth to thin soup, if needed. After the soup is done, sprinkle in the zest of half a lemon and stir.
Serve with lemon slices.