Sunday, November 8, 2009

Curried Lentil Soup




Here's a soup I think you'll enjoy.What kicked this off is some Curried Butternut Squash soup I had for lunch from a bakery close by my work.  It was so good and I'm not normally a curry person, but I am now. Especially after making this Curried Lentil Soup. The taste of the soup is intriguing. At first it's just the delicious flavor of the lentils, broth and spice blend, which then gives way to the curry flavor and finishes with a touch of heat from the cayenne. Give it a try, it's delicious. Adapted from Epicurious.

3 cups lentils, soaked in water overnight, and rinsed
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, washed, trimmed, and chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with puree
3 chicken bouillon cubes mixed with one cup water
5 cups water
a pinch of cayenne pepper (or two)
1 tablespoon salt (more to season to taste when soup is done)
2 teaspoons pepper (more to season to taste when soup is done)

I made this in a Pressure Cooker, but if you want to make it conventionally on a stovetop, follow the instructions, and just cook over medium heat for 45 minutes until lentils are soft.



Pour olive oil into cooker over medium heat. Saute onions, carrots, and celery for approximately 10 minutes until onions soften. Add garlic and ginger and saute for 3 minutes. Add curry powder, stir, and add bouillon liquid, and 5 additional cups of water and tomatoes. Stir in lentils and salt and pepper.

Turn heat to high, cover, lock and add thermostat. Bring up to pressure. When cooker begins to steam constantly, turn heat down to medium, and cook at pressure for an additional 8 minutes.

Remove from heat and let de-pressurize normally. When cooled down, uncover, add pinch of cayenne, stir, and taste. Add salt, pepper, in small increments, stir and taste again until it tastes how you want it.

Serve in bowls with a touch of sour cream and parsley for garnish.

8 comments:

Nina said...

I love lentils! What propitious timing that you posted about pressure cooking...I'm Editorial Director for RecipeLion.com, and I just wrote a post about pressure cooking beef stew. I linked to your Curried Lentil Soup post from my post, as I think my readers will enjoy it.

Check it out here

Ron Merlin said...

Thanks Nina.

Feel free to use my links whenever you'd like. I have some other pressure cooker recipes posted, as well as Pot Roast and coming soon is Guinness Beef Stew.

TMM

Ginger said...

WOW sounds so flavorful and great to have on a cool fall day. My pressure cooker remains in the box due to my fear of blowing the house up? Is that possible?? I would love to use it.

Ron Merlin said...

Ginger!

You will NOT blow up the house. Today's pressure cookers are perfectly safe.

Imagine making soup in 8 minutes!

Imagine a beautifully tender pot roast, potatoes, carrots and gravy all in 45 minutes!

You have to try it. What's so interesting to me is that the flavors blend so well, even in short cooking times. Additionally, because the cooking times are so brief, the spices stay vibrant and delicious.

Try one of my soups or the spaghetti and meatballs and let me know how you did. ok?

TMM

Frenchie said...

This soup is an absolute must for me, I make lentil soup with cumin all the time, but I don't usually use curry, this would be a great way to change it up a bit.

Ron Merlin said...

Frenchie,

Do try it with curry. I bet you'll like it. Let me know.


TMM

mamamia said...

Mr. Merlin, I think I love you! I followed your recipe exactly, except I added 2 tsp of cinnamon. It was so DANG good, we invited our elderly widowed neighbor over the next night for leftovers. I am reprinting the recipe for her right now. I made chapati bread (rotli) to go with it and served each bowl with a scoop of creme fraiche. This will be one of our new go-to recipes. Thank you, thank you!! Mia from Vancouver

Ron Merlin said...

I'm so glad you liked it. It's become one of MY favorite soups.

Funny thing is, I was on my way to the store to buy the ingredients to make it again myself today!