Curried Lentils with Couscous Soup
2 cups lentils, rinsed
6 cups water and/or vegetable broth
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers ( red or green)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onion
1 or 2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 cup couscous
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon madras curry powder (or more to your liking)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon sodium free (or low) veg-all seasoning
sauté bell peppers, celery, carrots, onion and garlic in a large pot with the olive oil until tender
add the water/veg broth and bring to boil
add lentils and cook unitl tender ( maybe 1 hour at the most)
add the paprika, curry powder, turmeric, cumin and the seasoning
simmer a few minutes to meld the flavor
stir in the couscous and continue simmering for a few minutes
more until the couscous is tender adding more water/broth if too thick
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This was really great. I added a lot more spices than called for, because lentils are a bit bland to me.
I stuck with the spices recommended, but probably doubled everything.
I froze a bunch of it, and i'm having some for lunch today. :)
This was good stuff. Mine was thicker than soup usually is, too, but that was okay cause I didn't really make a main course! I had lots of left overs so the following day I heated some up and used it instead of beans in a burrito...I wasn't sure how it would work but it was great! I'd make it again!
Peace.
this recipe was the bombdiggity and i'm super happy i tried it this evening.
i used my fancy little chopper to chop up the veggies finely which worked really well for this soupy recipe.
i served it four three other friends along with roti that i made using another recipe from vegweb, as well as some basmati rice with peas, and a mint "ranch" sauce to cool everything down... all of this went over really well with my friends and myself.
totally delicious.
also, i've got about two bowls of leftovers which i'm stoked about eating for lunch
I thought this recipe was okay, aside from some problems that arose in the making of it. I found the amount of oil to be waaay too small. I probably used a tablespoon, at least, for all those veggies! I found that for the amount of lentils, the spice and liquid recommendations were WAY too small. I think I ended up with 10-12 cups of liquid when all was said and done, and definitely added a great deal more curry powder to account for the addition of the water.
Mine also ended up being quite salty, but I'll blame that on the vegetable broth I used (since I skipped the veg seasoning and didn't add any salt).
I think, however, that a bit of water will really spruce this up in the morning and that it will be better as leftovers.
I have made this twice now. I did not put the couscous in it; instead, I made some quinoa and served the lentil soup (which for me was thicker and more like a stew) over the quinoa. This was delicious both times! Thumbs up!
I made this tonight, also as a sick-day soup, but it became so much I can take "leftovers" to work tomorrow and eat it for dinner tomorrow night...anyway, it's great and uses stuff I usually always have on stock :)
I am a sick little vegan who needed some soup. There is spinach and tomato in it also. This was good, and I ate mine with rice because I was really hungry.