Red Lentil Soup with Spiced Yogurt

This is a bloody good soup!  With a bit of bread, or some toasted pitta, it is a filling meal and a bit of a treat. Sweet & subtly spiced.

Serves 4 (Left-overs can be frozen)
Preperation time 10mins
Cooking time 40mins

Ingredients:

2tbsp Olive Oil / Rapeseed Oil
1 large Onion, peeled & chopped
1-2 bay leaves
1 carrot, peeled & chopped
1 small celery stick, chopped
3 garlic cloves
4cm ginger, peeled & grated
2 red chillies, chopped (de-seed if wanted less spicy)
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
180g red lentils
1 litre vegetable stock
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sea salt & fresh ground pepper
1 small handful coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped

Spiced Yogurt:

1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 pinch of caraway seeds
1 pinch of cayenne seeds
4 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp olive oil


On a medium flame, heat the oil in a large saucepan, then sweat (fry with the lid on) the onion & bay leaves for 10mins until soft. Add the carrot & celery and cook and fry gently for 5 mins.  Add the garlic, ginger, curry powder, cumin & lentils.  Stir it around to coat the lentils well & then add the stock.  Bring to a simmer & cook for 25mins.  Remove the bay & then puree the lentils. Add the lemon juice & season to taste.  Thin with a small amount of water if it's too thick.

To make the yogurt, dry fry the seeds for a minute or two until they start to release their oils, then grind.  Add the cayenne & salt.  Add 1 teaspoon of the spice mix to the yogurt, & stir in the oil.  The rest can be kept for months in a small glass jar until next needed.

To serve the soup, drizzle a couple of spoonfuls of the yogurt over each bowl of soup & sprinkle over the coriander.

This recipe came from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall writing for The Guardian weekend colour supplement 19/Jan/13.  There is another awesome lentil recipe there, for a sausage & prune caserole.  I'll be putting that in too as it's another one that needs to be repeated!




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