Coconut Lentil Soup

Submitted by stormylee

"Serve this lovely, smooth soup with croutons. Recipe originally from the Yhteishyva magazine."

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 200 ml red lentils
• 3⁄4 inch fresh ginger (2 cm)
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 400 ml chicken stock
• 1 (400 g) can crushed tomatoes
• 200 ml coconut milk

directions

1. Rinse and drain lentils.
2. Finely chop ginger, onion and garlic clove.
3. Heat oil in a pot and sauté chopped ginger, onion and garlic until softened.
4. Add turmeric, hot chicken stock, crushed tomatoes and the lentils; bring to boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Puree the soup in a blender until smooth and return to the pot (or use a hand-held blender).
6. Add coconut milk and heat gently.

Reviews

[*Parsley*]

Smooth and filling soup. Rather healthy, too. I used a few extra cloves of garlic. The end result was actually way too thick (like pudding), so added extra broth. I was a bit disappointed in the flavor. It was actually a little bland. I think adding some cumin or garam masala would make it work better for me. Thanx for posting!

 

[little_princess_suzy]

Fantastic soup. I didn't have onion, garlic or ginger in the house so I used dried ginger and onion powder and skipped the garlic. I also used tomato sauce as I didn't have crushed on hand. I did use extra broth with the lentils (about double what was called for). I also used light coconut milk and didn't blend the final product. Despite all my mod's the soup was still fantastic! The flavour is wonderful and I will certainly make it again. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Cupcake-Princess]

I made this for the Spring 2010 PAC. This soup had a great flavor and the texture was velvety smooth. I did not know if the lentils in this recipe were meant to be dried or canned, but I used dried. Instead of 20 minutes to cook the lentils it took 1 1/2 hours to cook the lentils with the pot covered, and instead of simmering, most of the time the lentils were boiling. I think that this recipe is meant to be made with canned lentils. I kept on having to add more broth, by the time I had finished the soup, I have added 5 cups of broth instead of the 1 2/3 cup, and the soup was still way to thick. I used vegetable broth instead of chicken to make it totally vegetarian, and I did'nt have crushed tomatoes, so I used a can of diced tomatoes instead. Very good flavor, I garnished the soup with a drizzle of coconut milk and a sprinkling of unsweetened shredded coconut. I will make this soup again, but next time I will use already cooked canned lentils so it wont take as long as it did with the dried lentils, and use more broth so the soup is not as thick. Thanks for the yummy soup recipe stormylee!

 

[Food Snob in Israel]

This was TOO thick to be a soup. I needed to thin it out with copious amounts of coconut milk (an additional cup) and about a half a cup of water. I added about two tablespoons of cocanut flakes (non sweetened) and it gave it a bit of texture and body, which was nice, and I also left a few chunks of lentil to give it a kick. I agree that candied ginger (something sweet on top) would have made a pleasant addition. So would some sour cream, perhaps. Maybe even a sprinkling of dill. Though I worry about adding more "tang". While I liked the creaminess and the sensory experience of the flavor, I did feel that there were too many competing main flavors. The tomato was just so strong. So was the garlic. The ginger was weakened, which is why I would like to see it highlighted with some candied schreded ginger as a garnish. But it was TOO complex. The coconut was also overpowering and may have been giving it (in combo with the tomato or maybe tumeric) a "tangy" taste that was almost pungent. Maybe I should have just thinned it out with water alone. But the texture was smooth and soft...and I liked that. My husband on the other hand took three bites and wouldn't eat anymore. And of course the two year old got wind of this and refused to even try it, even though I managed to get through my entire bowl...but I had to go slowly because this was SO hardy and so filling and I probably will thin it out more with water before I can eat another bowl. I like multicultural foods and I like some spice and Indian foods and this sort of thing...but this just didn't do it for me. It didn't work. There are WAY better tumeric/coconut milk combinations out there. edited to add...I reheated the left overs, thinking better to giveit one more shot than to throw it all away but used TONS of water (to equal a more acceptable consistancy) and reheated the watered down version and have now given it a 3 star rating, though it could almost be a 4 now. Very good with a TON of plain water added into the mix. I will definately make this again. Even the two year old gobbled some down after it was watered down significantly.

 

[Resilient]

I cannot add more insightful information about this soup that wasn't already covered by the reviewers before me. I will, however, say that I whole heartedly second every word they've written about it. It was a delight to cook and eat!