Recipe: Curried red lentil soup. 13 January 2007 2:23 pm
Posted by Tracy in : books, cooking, eating, recipes, soup, sundance, vegan, vegetarian , trackback
Yay red lentil soup! As I was reviewing my Hungry Tracy project notes, I remembered that I ate a lot of delicious red lentil soup that week. Did I write down the recipe? No, I did not. But I have the sign at the top of this entry, for a similar soup I made at Sundance, as well as notes for that soup and one other like it, and I know I referred to at least three different recipes in the process of learning how to make red lentil soup. So. Based on those notes and three recipes (Red Lentil Soup from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, Egyptian Red Lentil Soup and Tomato Rasam from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special) here’s a very generalized recipe:
Ingredients and Equipment
- 2 cups red lentils
- 3 bay leaves
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped or pressed
- 4-5 slices fresh ginger root, maybe 1-2 inches total length sliced up
- 1 onion, chopped
- olive oil
- spices: cumin, coriander (or curry powder or garam masala), cayenne, salt, and black pepper
- (optional) 2 potatoes, diced
- (optional) two medium carrots, chopped
- (optional) 1 small (15 oz) can diced tomatoes, although dicing up 2 or 3 fresh tomatoes would be even better
- tamarind concentrate paste or coconut milk
- lemon juice
- (optional) fresh cilantro and/or parsley
- two medium-to large cooking pots
What You Do
Start by rinsing the lentils and putting them to boil in the smaller pot with the bay leaves and ginger and maybe half of the garlic (or you can sauté all the garlic; the bay leaves and ginger will be enough to season the lentils just fine). Make sure the lentils are covered with at least an inch or two of water, and give them a stir every now and then to make sure they’re not sticking to the bottom of the pot (they can burn hideously, and it’s also pretty gross when they boil over, so turn down the heat once they’re boiling). Fun fact: red lentils start out a funny shade of orange but turn a very pretty gold as they cook. Keep an eye out for that pretty golden yellow color while you prep the other ingredients.
As you can see by the charming little graffito on this sign, not all Sundance customers were aware of that particular fun fact. I got so sick of the question that eventually I made a separate little Post-It Note sign about it. But I digress.
The lentils should be done in about 15-20 minutes, which gives you plenty of time to sauté together the olive oil, garlic, diced onion and spices over medium heat until they’re a do-it-yourself curry paste of your very own making! Yum! (Suggestions for the spice mix: I like a lot of cumin and coriander, maybe a big teaspoon of each, and just a pinch of cayenne, probably no more than a quarter teaspoon. You can adjust pretty much everything except the cayenne to taste later; I think it’s important to sauté the cayenne because it can be pretty harsh or even bitter otherwise. Alternatively, if you have a favorite curry powder or garam masala, use two teaspoons of that, along with a pinch of cayenne and salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste.) Do this step in a bigger pot than the one you’re using for the lentils, because eventually you’ll transfer the cooked/cooking lentils over into the spice mixture (say, after 15-20 minutes, when most of them have turned that nice yellow color).
After you’ve transferred the lentils into the spice mix and given it a stir, add the carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes, if you’re using any of those. You can take out the bay leaves and chunks of ginger at this point, though technically those are all edible if you don’t mind a little extra chewing. Now you let everything cook together until the carrots and potatoes (if you’re using them) are done. If you don’t have any root vegetables to wait for, maybe wait as long as it takes to wash your lentil-cooking pot just to give all the flavors a little time to meld.
Finish the soup by mixing in a few tablespoons of lemon juice and either a tablespoon or two of tamarind paste for more tartness, or maybe half a cup of coconut milk for more creaminess. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, and serve. If you want a thicker, creamier consistency, you can blend part of the soup and mix it back into the whole (this works especially well for the coconut milk variation) but the lentils do just sort of purée themselves in the cooking process. Serve the soup garnished with fresh parsley or cilantro, and yogurt if you like that sort of thing (I know I do).
This recipe makes four to eight servings of hearty soup in 30 to 45 fun and easy minutes; leftovers will thicken into a curry suitable for serving over rice, or you can serve the soup itself over rice, in which case it will easily stretch two to four more servings.
Comments»
I could post to every entry just to say YOU ARE AWESOME but I want to post to this one especially, just to tell you I made (lazy) lentil soup last night. Cup o’ reds, a peeled diced kumara (New Zealand sweet potato), couple of diced carrots, diced onion and garlic. The kicker: TWO GIGANTIC SPOONFULS of a mango-lime-chili chutney I found in the fridge. Very good for those of us who have terrible noses and are not good at spicing.
I’m so glad you’re writing this. I can’t wait to read more!