Red lentil soup with cumin and lemon
Cheap, fast, and better the next day. Red lentils collapse into a thick, golden soup in about 25 minutes, and a squeeze of lemon at the end wakes the whole pot up.
- yield
- Serves 4
- active
- 15 min
- total
- 45 min
- oven
- not needed
Posted
Ingredients
Method
- Warm the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring now and then, until soft, about 8 minutes.
- Add the garlic, cumin, paprika, and tomato paste. Stir for 1 minute, until fragrant and the paste darkens slightly.
- Add the lentils, stock, and salt. Bring to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer. Cook partly covered, stirring occasionally, 20 to 25 minutes, until the lentils have collapsed.
- Blend about half the soup with an immersion blender, or leave it chunky. Add water if it is thicker than you like.
- Stir in the lemon juice. Taste, adjust the salt, and serve with yogurt and herbs.
Notes
- Keeps 4 days in the fridge and freezes well. It thickens as it sits, so loosen it with water when you reheat it.
- Red lentils do not need soaking. Rinse them until the water runs mostly clear to wash off dust and loose starch.
#!/usr/bin/env bash# red-lentil-soup.sh: cheap, fast, freezes well. serves 4.heat pot --level medium --oil 2tbspadd onion carrot salt:pinchsweat --for 8m --until softadd garlic:3 cumin:1tsp smoked-paprika:0.5tsp tomato-paste:1tbspstir --for 1m # bloom the spices. 60 seconds, not 600.add lentils:200g,rinsed stock:1.2L salt:1tspboil && reduce-heat --to simmernohup simmer soup --for 25m --lid ajar > /dev/null & # runs without youtail -f pot # optional. stir if anything sticks.waitblend soup --half # or skip. both are valid states.squeeze lemon --halftaste && salt add --to tasteserve --with yogurt herbs# The script is the joke. The ingredients and method are the recipe.