Curried Red Lentil Soup

Curried Red Lentil Soup

I returned yesterday from a trip to re-visit 2 Colleges that my daughter is considering. Eating on the road is always a bit of a challenge for me.  I was able to eat lots of organic fruit, walnuts, almonds, some amazing food in Portland, and some decent food in Spokane but nothing beats our home cooked meals here in the kitchen. I tire of eating out fairly rapidly.

 I was craving this simple, delicious, filling lentil soup so after visiting the Farmer's Market this morning I came home and cooked.  There are so many other things I need to be doing - taxes, for one!  But.... I wanted to cook and cook I did.

Here is the list of ingredients I used for this red lentil soup.  It's always a bit different.  Please remember that this can be changed and manipulated for your taste, to use less oil, to add more vegetables, different spice combinations, etc.


2 tbsp coconut oil (you can use much less than this if you are watching oil/fat in your diet)
small handful of mustard seeds/maybe 2 - 4 tbsp?
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
4 carrots, chopped
1 quart home made stock
1 quart of water with a little more water as the lentils cooked
4 cups of red lentils, rinsed until the rinse water runs clear
1 -2 cups of fresh tomato or one can or more of chopped toms
2 tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
4 - 8 cups or more of chopped greens - kale, spinach, beet greens, dandelion
chopped cilantro for garnish (and taste)

1.  I used a large soup pot on low heat to melt the 2 tbsp of coconut oil.  You can use any oil you like.  I like the flavor of coconut oil and it is a high heat oil so sauteing is safe.

2.  Once the oil was warm I added the mustard seeds. (please see notes at the end of the post for nutritional information on mustard seeds)

3.  While the mustard seeds were cooking gently I chopped the onion.  You could easily use two onions for this recipe, or leeks, or even red onion.  I had one medium sized onion in the drawer so that's what went into the soup!

4.  Fresh minced ginger is so much better than powdered or leaving it out.  Fresh ginger is really good for you - a natural anti-inflammatory.  You can keep it in a baggy in your frig and use it in smoothies, stir fry, Indian inspired cuisine, salad dressings, etc.

5.   I don't always use minced garlic in this soup because I am too lazy to chop it.  However, it makes a difference to the flavor palette and I think it's really worth chopping.  Now If I can only remember this when I am trying to rush and cook - not advised, by the way, this rushing and cooking... something always goes wrong.  It's probably better to do the "be here now" thing when cooking.  

6.  While everything was sauteing I added the spices.  Spicing something like this is a really personal issue.  I used a spice combination that my friend, Laurie, gave me for Christmas.  It contains cumin, cardamom, coriander, tumeric, dry mustard, and cayenne.  I used 1 1/2 tsp.  You could easily use garam masala spice mix or just a bit of cumin, coriander, and tumeric.

7.  I did add some tumeric from my Indian spice drawer which is right next to my cooking surface.  I like tumeric.  It is a great anti-inflammatory and makes the color of the soup really beautiful.  I probably used 1 tsp.

8.  I used a quart of homemade stock and about a quart of water and added these to the saute.  Watch for splattering.  

By the way, it is so easy to make homemade stock.  Put a gallon zip lock bag in your freezer and simply put the ends of vegetables you don't use in that bag - pieces of onion, celery, carrot, etc. Collect bits and pieces until the bag is full and then add it to a big stock pot of water, adding parsley, salt, pepper, more onion... whatever suits your fancy.  When I make stock I add mushrooms to the stock pot because I can't stand eating mushrooms (they feel funny in my mouth) but they are amazingly healthy for us and should be consumed regularly.  After I cook the stock over low heat for hours and hours I strain it and then put it in quart sized baggies in the freezer.  They stack beautifully and are very easy to thaw.  The strained veg goes out onto the compost to help grow the year round veg garden. I know, I know, I am using plastic bags.  I tried quart jars and they burst in the freezer.  

9.  I used 4 cups of lentils for this soup.  We like this soup thick.  If you like a thinner soup, use a few less lentils and more water as the lentils cook.

10. Aren't these floating tomatoes cute?!

 I threw in about 16 - 20 smaller tomatoes from a batch I froze this last summer.  You can use fresh chopped tomatoes when they are in season, frozen tomatoes, canned tomatoes.  I think tomatoes add a lot to this soup.  

I also used about 2 tbsp of tomato paste.

11.  Bring this all to a boil and then cook on low simmer for 20 minutes or so. The red lentils cook really quickly.  Red lentils don't need to be soaked prior to cooking and they are fast so this is a meal that can be thrown together for dinner.

After the lentils have cooked down, add the chopped greens.  I used about 4 - 6 cups of chopped kale from the garden and about 2 - 3 cups of chopped beet greens.

Cook another 10 minutes or so.

I like to serve this soup over brown rice with chopped cilantro on the top.  This huge pot of soup will provide us with many meals over the next 4 days or so.  It also freezes well and re-heats beautifully.  

Mustard Seeds:

Mustard seeds are in the Brassica family so they contain plentiful amounts of phytonutrients called glucosinolates.  The seeds also contain myrosinase enzymes that can break apart the glucosinolates into other phytonutrients called isothiocyanates.  The isothiocyanates in mustard seeds and other Brassicas have been repeatedly studied for their anti-cancer effects. Isothiocyanates have been shown to inhibit growth of existing cancer cells and prevent growth of cancer cells, especially linked to gastrointestinal and colorectal cancers. 

Mustard seeds are full of selenium, magnesium, manganese and omega 3 fatty acids.  The selenium and magnesium component have a high anti-inflammatory effect in the body.