Another of my staple meals.
Ingredients
Food processor ingredients can be combined1:
1 yellow onion, finely diced
1-2 carrots, finely diced
1 peeled potato2, finely diced
These all go in at once:
2 chicken or vegetable stock cubes
1 tablespoon dried mint
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
pinch cayenne pepper (optional)3
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus any extra to taste4
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup red lentils5
6 cups water
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 heaped tbsp flour6
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
Cooking
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the diced onion, carrot and potato. Sautee for about five minutes until onions have softened, stirring occasionally.
Rinse the lentils well, removing any debris. Add to the saucepan, and saute for three minutes, stirring constantly so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Add the six cups of water, the stock cubes, and all the dried herbs plus the salt and pepper.(The dried mint all the way through to black pepper). Let the soup come to a boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat to medium and let the mixture cook uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until lentils and vegetables are cooked through.
In a separate small skillet, add the butter and let it melt over medium heat, then add the flour, and whisk constantly until the mixture bubbles and thickens slightly. Add this to the lentil soup pot. Once soup is totally cooked through, use an immersion blender or a normal blender (And blend in batches), and blend soup to desired consistency. I like it creamy and smooth but with a few chunks of veggies.
Serve hot, with a slice of lemon, and green olives on the side.
Terry’s Variations
1 The dish is a bit more elegant if you have knife skills and patience and dice the vegetables finely (4mm or less) and then blend half when it is done. This leaves a nice vegetable texture, but it is laborious. I generally food process it now and then stick blend at the end. Life is short :-) If you do choose to make this a bit more upmarket, I would follow the recipe more closely and use the flour and butter and not add rice as I suggest below.
2 I don’t peel.
3 I subtitute fresh red chilli and throw them into the food processor with the vegetables at the start.
4 I go straight to an extra half teaspoon of salt and call it done.
5 Use what you have, but red lentils break down much better than green.
6 I substitute a couple of tablespoons of arborio rice at the early stages of cooking and don’t mess with flour and butter. Less fat; quicker; Rice compliments the amino acid profile of the lentils. Although you would need more rice to fully balance it.
I would throw in some nutritional yeast for the vitamin B12 if you are a vegetarian. The cumin flavours mask it pretty well and the flavour is compatible.
Based on:
https://everylittlecrumb.com/wprm_print/1830