I'm hoping it's just my excitement for the holiday season, but I have consumed SO MUCH sugar in the past couple weeks. In an effort to help counteract my massive sweet tooth, I looked through my Soup Club file and tried to pick one of the healthier soups of the bunch. Sunna's recommendation, Four Corners Lentil Soup, was exactly what I was hoping to find. This soup is as flavorful as it is light, and I love that I could have eaten the whole pot and not have felt an ounce of guilt. The cumin and lemon flavors brought me back to all the Mexican soups and stews my grandmother used to make when I was a child. And I don't even think I have to mention how stunning those ruby and amber hues are.
Four Corners Lentil Soup
Ingredients1 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed very well
1 large onion, or a couple leeks, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. minced ginger root
1 Tbsp. Ground cumin
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 15 oz. can of tomatoes; or 4 large, fresh tomatoes, chopped
4 cups stock
salt to taste
1 un-waxed, organic lemon
Directions
1. Rinse the lentils very well until the water runs clear.
2. Heat oil in a medium pot and sauté onions, garlic and ginger for 5 minutes until soft. Add a pinch of salt.
3. Add spices and stir for another minute or so, until fragrant.
4. Add tomatoes, 3 slices of lemon and rinsed lentils, then add vegetable stock. Stir well.
5. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. Squeeze in the rest of the lemon juice.
6. Serve hot with some cilantro, green onions or parsley on top with a slice of lemon. Delicious!
Serves 4.
Notes
- I used chicken stock instead of veggie. I'll most likely stick to using chicken stock from now on because I always have it on hand.
- Tomatoes are way out of season for us at this point, so I used canned.
- Instead of adding lemon slices to the soup, I added the zest of one lemon when I added the spices. This added a POWERFUL citrus punch. I'm big on lemon in soups, but if you prefer a more subtle flavor, I would stick to using the slices as suggested.
three cheers for lentils!
ReplyDeleteI WANT SOME SOUP
ReplyDeleteThis shit looks delish...and it (seemingly) requires little effort (and/or shopping) on my behalf. Win.
ReplyDeletei really really really love your soup club. and I making this soup as I type :)
ReplyDeleteaww, ashley, that's so sweet! soup club will resume this sunday! xoxo
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm so glad you liked it, Celia! I've been craving it myself for the last week or so... Have probably eaten my weight in naan, oily masalas and deep-fried everything now. The healthiest thing I've been able to find is probably ginger-lemon-honey tea, though I'm not altogether sure that the 50-50 honey-water ratio is such a good thing.
ReplyDelete- Sunna
i made this and its delicious. making another batch this weekend, thanks for the recipe
ReplyDeleteThe lemon zest seemed to give the soup a bitter flavor. Suggestions for combatting this? Should I just use a lot of lemon juice instead?
ReplyDeletehmmm... did you only zest the yellow part of the peel? that's where all the flavor/sweetness is. the rind (white part beneath the yellow) is very bitter, so you want to avoid zesting it as much as possible. lemon juice will work, but i've always preferred zest. :)
Delete