A Warm You Up Dinner Recipe: Creamy Red Lentil Soup
This is a delicious Lentil Soup recipe we made for dinner last night. This recipe comes via QlinArt, with an assist from our friend Hamutal.
The first time we made this dish, we substituted cream for coconut milk, and didn’t have the apricots, but it turned out delightful, and it’s the kind of soup that makes your house smell amazing, with complex aromas of fragrant spices (including some of the all-time faves: cumin, coriander, fennel, cloves, and of course, saffron)!
Best of all, it took less than 30 minutes to make the entire thing, and it’s cheap (if you have the spices, the rest runs about $10 or so for the whole batch) and easy to make!
We served it up on a wintry night with a couple of hot, fresh pita (er, pide) breads that we picked up from Cafe Divan.
Recipe “au pif”:
1 cup red lentils
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic glove, chopped coarsely
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 recipe spice blend *
7 dried apricots, chopped coarsely
1 large tomato, chopped coarsely
1 red hot chili, finely minced
6 cups boiling water
2 ½ tbsp concentrated chicken or vegetable chicken stock, or 1 ½ cube chicken/vegetable stock
1 tbsp good quality curry powder
1 can (400ml) good quality coconut milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Fresh coriander, coarsely chopped
* Spice blend recipe:
½ tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp ground tumeric
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp black mustard seeds
½ tsp crushed cardamom seeds (shells discarded)
½ tsp dried chili flakes
5 cloves
A pinch of saffron
Mix all spices in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a large cooking pot, heat oil on medium high heat and add onions, ginger and garlic. Stir for about 2 minutes until ingredients turn golden brown.
Stir in the spice blend and stir for about 1 minute.
Add the rest of the ingredients, except the coconut milk, and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 20 minutes, when the lentils are soft. Stir occasionally.
Remove pot from heat and stir in the coconut milk. Mix well and let it cool for a few minutes.
Use a hand blender to purée the mixture until smooth and velvety. Strain through a sieve.
Serve hot and garnish with fresh coriander.
