Egyptian Red Lentil Soup

Submitted by ratherbeswimmin

"A yummy soup that uses my favorite lentils. Adapted from a Moosewood recipe. This is a good and healthy take-to-work lunch."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 23mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 6-8

ingredients

• 5 cups vegetable broth or 5 cups water
• 1 cup dried red lentils
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 2 cups chopped potatoes
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1⁄2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper

directions

1. Add the first 5 ingredients to a large pot; cover and bring to a boil.
2. Lower the heat and simmer 15-20 minutes or until the lentils and veggies are tender.
3. Take pot from stove burner and set aside.
4. In a small saucepan, add the oil; warm over low heat until the oil is hot but not smoking.
5. Add in the cumin, turmeric, and salt; cook and stir constantly for for 2-3 minutes or until the cumin has released its fragrance (be careful not to scorch the spices).
6. Set spice mixture aside for 1 minute to cool.
7. Stir spice mixture into the lentil mixture; add cilantro, stir to combine.
8. You can puree the soup, in batches, in a blender OR you can use an immersion blender and blend to desired texture (I like to leave it a little chunky).
9. Add in lemon juice; stir to combine.
10. Rewarm soup in soup pot; season if needed with salt/pepper.

Reviews

[Chef metal]

This was excellent, I just got done with my second bowl and I'm full but I want to keep eating! I made a few changes, I sauteed the onion and garlic before adding the vegetable broth (i also chopped the garlic). I did what others said and added another teaspoon of Cumin. I added a little more potato which I mashed by hand inside the pot (no need to puree) The result was very thick soup just how I like it - adding a little more cilantro won't hurt either. This was my first experience with red lentils and I must say that I'm impressed - thanks for posting

 

[jdod13]

Great - don't skip toasting the spices - you could tell from the smell in my kitchen that this made all the difference.

 

[Robin F.]

I made this recipe for the first time yesterday. Lovely, filling soup. Lucky enough to have a pressure cooker for the first five ingredients (added one large chopped carrot as well/ broth made with my own vegetable concentrate), cooked for 6 minutes in the pressure cooker but I did brown the onions and garlic first as suggested.<br/>All in all a wonderful result and liked by all the family. A favourite lentil/vegetarian recipe from now on!

 

[Kumquat the Cats fr]

Excellent soup! I didn't have tumeric and added 2 1/2 teaspoons cumin instead. It could have used 3 teaspoons cumin and all of the tumeric as far as I was concerned. I kept the garlic cloves whole and added 1 can diced tomatoes and some carrots to get some vitamins A and C in there. Omitted the cilantro as it was expensive and not my BF's favorite herb either. Looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch. Thanks a bunch for posting :)

 

[Carrie-Anne D.]

What a great warm you up from the inside out soup. I took the advise of the other reviewers and added 2 carrots and 2 celery stalks and it was as good as they promised it would be. The only thing I would say is you absolutely have to double this recipe!