Red Lentil Soup

One of the most popular dishes in the New York Times cooking database, with over 40,000 5-star ratings (the highest), is red lentil soup.  We've seen it mentioned and featured periodically in the paper and finally decide to make it.  The dish is based on a Turkish lentil soup, mercimek corbasi, and is light and spicy, with  bold red color.

Gathering the ingredients

We first sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until golden, then stir in tomato paste, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper, sautéing for an additional two minutes.

Sautéing

We next add chicken broth, water, red lentils, and diced carrot, bringing the mixture to a simmer and cooking until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes.

Simmering

We remove half the soup, purée it in a food processor, return it to the pot, reheat the soup, and stir in lemon juice and cilantro.  We served drizzled with olive oil and dusted with chili powder.

Finishing up

Serving

We accompany the soup with a salad of arugula (topped with olive oil, salt, and pepper), mozzarella, tomato jam, and prosciutto, with a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Salad

Dinner is served

What a simple, tasty dish.  Now that we've made in once, we're thinking about tweaking the recipe for the next time (less cumin and cilantro, perhaps some crunch such as bacon, pancetta, or croutons).