With a rainy Sunday and a long week of work ahead, today was a day for cooking. In an effort to break my eating-out-every-lunch habit, I set to work on a hearty last-all-week soup. The recipe is simple, hearty, and plentiful. And that’s it. Happy almost Monday, everyone!
Red Lentil Soup
This soup reminds me of one that I had when I was in Cairo a few months ago. I based it on one I found in the NYT (PDFed here) and then I upped the Middle Eastern factor with a more than liberal sprinkling of cumin and the addition of sumac which adds a sour note. The lemon juice at the end adds extra freshness.
Serves 6-8.
-3-4 T olive oil
– 2 onions, chopped
– 4 cloves garlic, chopped
– 1 6 oz. can of tomato paste
– 1 heaping T cumin
– a few pinches cayenne pepper
– 1 heaping t sumac
– 6-7 C vegetable broth
– 1.5 C red lentils
– 1 C brown lentils (not French/de Puy lentils)
– salt and pepper to taste
– lemon juice
Heat olive oil and saute onion and garlic about 4-5 minutes until soft. Add tomato paste, cumin, cayenne, and sumac, sauteing for another 5 minutes. Add broth and lentils and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes until lentils soften. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a few splashes of lemon.
I was just going to make red lentil soup my way but I’ll try yours looks and sounds good. thanks i’ll let u know how it comes out.
What fantastic flavours. I am not really a soup person in general, but this one speaks to me. Absolutely lovely 🙂
*kisses* HH
That soup sounds wonderful, I love lentils and I really like the use of sumac!
– Julie — let me know how it turns out. Note — it’s a bit on the thicker side since I used both red lentils and brown lentils and I used a little less water. Also, you can use an immersion blender to smooth everything out, but I liked the coarser texture here.
– Thanks Heavenly — Hope you try this soup if the mood strikes. If you want to less hearty, just use all red lentils, more water, and blend.
– Cara – thanks for visiting. What a beautiful site you have — I can’t wait to curl up with my computer and check it out.
–
That soup looks really good and it sounds nice and healthy!
The soup sounds great.
Love that bowl!!
LL
This looks yummy. What is sumac? “1 heaping t sumac”
Thanks, Meira. Sumac is an herb/spice that imparts a sour taste to stuff. I found mine in a spice-only store. Since it’s a middle eastern spice, maybe you can find it in a kosher store? If not, I think you can add in some extra lemon juice or maybe zest.
Also the soup is really easy to make — if you want to make it for shabbat as a main course, I’d probably only use red lentils to keep it a bit thinner and less hearty. You can also use an immersion blender to make it smooth.