Food Passion: Recipe: Spicy Lentil Soup

Here is a recipe I adapted from one given to me by a friend. It's such a warming dish, easy to eat any time, any day and so easy to make.

Lentils are part of the legume family and are closely related to peas. They are a good source of protein, being the third highest protein-content plant-based food. There are so many different varieties, each with it's own colour, texture and use. For this soup, I prefer to use the red lentils, but yellow lentils are good too.

What you need (to make 2 GENEROUS portions):

• 1 cup lentils
• 4 cups water
• vegetable oil
• 2 chopped medium tomatoes (or tomato puree)
• Garam Masala
• Chilli powder to taste
• half tsp tumeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 chopped onion

What you do:

1. Put the lentils, salt, water, one chopped tomato into saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the lentil are tender. you may need to stir a few times to make sure lentils don't stick to the bottom of the pan..
2. In a separate pan, heat the oil. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and spices and fry until the onions are soft. This is an important step as it ensure the spices are cooked and avoids that horrible taste of raw spices. Cooking themin oil bring out the aroma better. Once the onion is soft, add the tomatoes and cooked until the tomatoes are cooked to your liking.
3. Add the spicy onion and tomato sauce to the lentil. Stir in thoroughly and mix well. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes to allow the spices to infuse the lentils.

Believe it or not, that's it! I usually eat this with crusty bread or a bread roll. However, this tastes great poured over rice as well.

NB: You can adjust the thickness of the soup. Add more water if you want it thinner and less if you want it thicker. it's that simple. You can skip the chilli if you want it of medium spice-heat. Let me know if you make it and what you think about it. Feel free to share how you make yours too. :-)