Curried Red Lentil Soup with Sweet Potatoes and Greens
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped red onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups water
1 1/2 cups dried red lentils, rinsed and sorted
2 large or 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons good-quality curry powder, more or less to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 to 8 ounces Swiss chard or spinach
juice of 1 lemon or lime
salt to taste
Both nourishing and sublimely satisfying, this thick soup incorporates fall's first sweet potatoes with seasonal greens. Red lentils, which cook to a warm golden color, are available in natural food stores and ethnic groceries. Serve with Chapatis or a store-bought flatbread.
Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion and garlic and saute over medium heat until golden, about 10 minutes. Add the water, followed by the lentils, sweet potatoes, and seasonings. Bring to a rapid simmer, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer gently until the lentils are mushy and the potatoes are done, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash the greens, remove stems and midribs, then slice into narrow shreds. Stir into the soup along with the lemon juice. If the soup is too thick, adjust the consistency with a small amount of water.
Continue to simmer gently until the greens are just done, about 5 minutes for spinach and 10 to 15 minutes for chard. Season with salt. Serve at once, or if time allows, let the soup stand off the heat for an hour or two. Heat through before serving.
Per serving: Calories: 290 Total fat: 5 g Protein: 13 g Fiber: 10 g Carbohydrate: 50 g Cholesterol: 0 mg Sodium: 94 mg
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This was easy and quite tasty. I too added fresh cilantro and upped the amount of curry powder (they vary so much from brand to brand.) Than I added a slosh of coconut milk, which really pushed this soup up to an even higher level of "yum"! And it was even better the next day--let's see how good it tastes tomorrow, on Day 3!
I made this the other night and I just have to say that it was amazing. Such a unique soup and so filling! Way to GO!
Wow! What a soup! I added cauliflower as well and my husband was scraping out the remnants from the bottom of the pan, he liked it so much. And it made my house smell like Christmas! A great cold-weather soup!
Pretty good! I did change it up a bit though. I used a vidalia onion instead of red, brown lentils instead of red, vegetable broth instead of water, 6 cloves of garlic, dried ground ginger, extra curry, a dash of cayenne, ground black pepper, omitted the coriander, added fresh cilantro, and I added about 1/4 cup of spicy peanut butter (available from the Peanut Butter Co. at www.ilovepeanutbutter.com). I didn't peel my sweet potatoes because 1) I am lazy, and 2) all the nutrients are directly below the skin, so if you peel it, you peel away most of the healthy stuff. I used spinach (5 oz.) and 2 Tbsp. of lime juice. I served it with Luscious Coconut Bread also on this site. Yum.
I made this tonight, along with two other Thai soups. Probably not a good idea to confuse the taste buds with three different soups. We liked this one well enough, the curry, ginger and lemon perked it up. I'm including a photo, and your recipe is the darker colored soup in the three compartments.
This was indeed incredible. So flavorful (and colorful), I ate it for three lunches straight and froze the other half because I needed to eat other foods in my fridge before they went bad. Pretty easy to do, to. I used swiss chard (I like the texture it has more than wimpy cooked spinach), and I accidentally left out the lemon or lime juice, but it was still fantastic.
yum yum yum. thank you!
oh my goodness. this looks incredible!
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