I had a little party in the store at the bulk bins the other day. Try not to picture it. But man, I wanted everything! Came home with split peas, red lentils, and farro. We'll talk about the farro another time.
For now let's talk about this soup! I'll be honest and tell you it was totally an underdog from the start. Red lentils and split peas aren't necesarily exciting on their own. Reliably healthy, yes. Chalk full of flavor, no. But I hung in there with this recipe, and you should too. Turns out Heidi knows what's up--with her award winning food blog, amazing photography and two beautiful cookbooks--I decided to trust her. Plus I'll eat anything with coconut milk in it. And fresh ginger. And curry! See what I mean?
I followed the recipe exactly, but next time would double the raisins. They do really add a beautiful sweetness here. I wanted more. Also, I put a scoop of plain greek yogurt in my bowl at the end. Loved it! She suggests serving this soup over a scoop of brown rice but I chose to toast up some thick whole grain bread and served it on the side with a little butter.
Coconut Red Lentil Soup
from 101 Cookbooks
1 cup yellow split peas
1 cup red split lentils
7 cups water (next time I might replace this with stock just to see)
1 medium carrot, cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 tablespoons fresh peeled and minced ginger
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons butter
8 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup golden raisins (I would double this next time!)
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
2 teaspoons salt
cilantro and plain greek yogurt for garnish
Rinse the split peas and lentils really well--until the water is no longer murky. Place them in a large soup pot, cover with the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the carrot and 1/4 the ginger. Cover and simmer for about 30 min or until the split peas are soft.
In the meantime, in a small dry skillet or saucepan over low heat, toast the curry powder until it's quite fragrant. Be careful though, you don't want to burn the curry powder, just toast it. Set it aside. Place the butter in a pan over medium heat, add half the green onions, the remaining ginger, and raisins. Saute for tow minutes stirring constantly. Then add the tomato paste and saute for another minute or two. Add the toasted curry powder to the tomato paste mixture, mix well, and then add this to the soup along with the coconut milk and salt.
Simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes or so. I ended up letting it simmer for almost 45 min because I wanted a thicker consistency. It's up to you.
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