Recipe: Lemon Lentil Soup
Ingredients: Serves 2-4
1.5 Cups Red Lentils
1 Lemon
1/2 to 1 Cup Chopped Parsley Leaves
2.5 to 3 Cups Stock (Chicken or Vegetable) + 1 Cup of Water mixed together
1 Medium Sized Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 inch Fresh Ginger
1.5 tsp of Tomato Paste
1 Roma Tomato
1 tsp of Tumeric
1 tsp each of Cumin and Coriander Seeds (they will be dry toasted then ground up)
1 tsp of Coarse Salt
1 tsp of Chili Flakes
1 Bay Leaf
500g Spinach or Kale
Steps:
Chop up both Onion and Tomato into small chunks
Peel the garlic cloves, but don’t chop them up. They will be grated into the soup using a fine grater. If you don’t have a grater then chop up the cloves into very small pieces
Place a small pan on stove at low to medium heat to dry toast the Cumin and Coriander seeds. Don’t add any oil. Keep moving them around on the pan till you see some change in color (getting slightly darker) and becomes very aromatic, about 3 mins or so. Place them in a Mortar and Pestle immediately to stop the cooking process and starting grinding till fine in texture
Place pot on medium to high heat to cook the soup in
Once pot is hot then add some oil and toss in the chopped onion with chili flakes and salt. Stir it all together and let it sauté till onions turn golden yellow in color
Then grate in both ginger and garlic cloves into the pot and stir everything together for about 2 mins
Add in chopped tomatoes and stir once again till everything blends in together. Cook for about 5-7 mins. Add a bit of water if needed to de-glaze the bottom of the pot
Toss in grounded up cumin and coriander seeds, tumeric and tomato paste. Stir till it all gets incorporated
Then add the red lentils and stir still it gets all coated with tomato and spice mixture. Let it get toasted a little in the pot, about 5 mins
Pour in stock mixture and stir as well as de-glaze the pan. Throw in the bay leaf and squeeze in half a lemon
Stir to combine and bring soup to a boil. Then cover pot and let it sit for about 20-30mins at medium heat. Check once in a while and give it a stir. Should start to thicken up
Taste to see if you need to season it any further
To check if lentils are cooked through, squeeze some on the back of a wooden spoon. It shouldn’t feel grainy. If feeling a bit grainy then continue to cook till done (maybe 5 mins more).
Once soup has thickened a little and lentils are cooked, turn heat off. Place in spinach or kale and stir till it wilts a little.
Sprinkle on chopped parsley, stir it in and then it’s ready to serve!