I have three Indian cookbooks from which I can usually find something I want to make, perhaps with some additional guidance from a cooking site or blog. The one cookbook I bought because every single recipe had a lovely photograph! It’s relatively small 12 cm x 15 cm (5″ x 6″) which makes it even more adorable! It came with a ribbon book mark attached to the spine so you can mark the recipe you are making or the next one since it has lay-flat binding. With all these things going for it, you would think I would love this cookbook, but sadly I don’t. In fact, I have not enjoyed one of the recipes I’ve made from this book without significant changes! I should just chuck the thing but I can’t because I really like the way it looks. I know it’s silly but it is what it is.
This is a recipe I altered after having acquired a Meyer Lemon from a shoot in November and I wanted to make something with it. I puréed the soup to a smooth velvety consistency and I dressed it with a cumin yogurt drizzle with green onion slices, you could also drizzle with a flavour olive oil. The Papadams are from our trip to Chicago when Chgo John took us to his favourite ethnic stores.
Lemon Lentil Soup
Serves 2 generously (1 cup portions or 250 mL each)
Ingredients:
- 100 g dahl or yellow lentils
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, peel and finely chopped
- 1 tsp fresh garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 2-4 cups water (depending on how thick you prefer your soup)
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- grated rind of one lemon
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- 1 tsp cumin
- Shopped green onions as garnish
- papadums
Directions:
- Rinse the lentils and cook with the ginger, garlic, chill and turmeric and 2 cups water until soft.
- Add the salt, lemon juice and rind and blend with an immersion blender until smooth, adding water to achieve the consistency you prefer.
- Press through a fine sieve and set aside.
- In a small frying pan add the cumin and toast until fragrant. Cool. Once cool add to the yogurt and mix well. Salt to taste. Transfer to a small plastic squeeze bottle.
- Reheat soup and pour into rimmed soup bowls. Begin piping the yogurt from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock, then 2 to 7 and finally from 9 to 3. Then using a sharp knife beginning in the centre of the bowl, draw a spiral circle culminating at the outer ring (this will make the pattern). Garnish with the chopped green onions and papadums.
[…] Lemon Lentil Soup […]
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I just found your blog and had to comment when I saw lentils blended into soup- I’ve never done that before! I love lentils AND lemon, this will be so fun to try! Looking forward to reading more from you! I use lentils all the time, though I haven’t posted a recipe using them just yet (I just started blogging last month!) Feel free to check out my blog anytime, I write about living a clean, healthy, organic lifestyle on a budget in the U.S. Looking forward to reading more from you 🙂
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Thank you for following my blog, I was just over at your blog and left a comment on your Asian Lettuce Wraps, they are one of our favourite summer-time dinners! I hope you enjoy my blog.
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Thanks so much! I definitely do- and your lettuce tip is great, thank you 🙂
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I love how creative and fancy you are! Look at that soup – it’s just gorgeous. Almost too gorgeous to eat. That said, I will be eating this very soon. As you know we’ve been on the veggie kick, but we’ve also been on a big Indian kick. This will be right up our alley! The flavors sound so good too. Very much looking forward to this one Eva.
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I’m glad that this recipe hit the right notes for you and Mike, it’s a very filling and flavourful soup. I hope you do try and and let me know what you think.
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So funny we both cook Indian at the same time almost (well, you do cook Indian more often than me!). Now I’m making a dish in advance for tomorrow night (I work late recently…) and it’s also an Indian curry! One more coincidence: I bought today a bag of orange lentils in my Swiss supermarket. They have once more added more organic products to their range and there was 20% off at many of these. I paid the equivalent of 2 US dollars for a pound of organic lentils. It was a great deal! (Even the normal price is the same I pay for non-organic…). I will see if the taste is the same, but I have already saved myself some pesticides at least 😉
Anyway, (sorry for being so talkative) your soup looks wonderful and I am very curious about the addition of lemon juice. It must have added a nice refreshing kick…
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This is just the sort of soup I love, hearty and warming.. healthy too! I keep all sorts of cookbooks around because they’re pretty, I use them to decorate my kitchen and family room:) I think anything visually appealing is worth hanging on to!xx
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Hi Barbara, I had planned to have a cookbook shelf put into my kitchen but sadly there wasn’t enough room so now I keep them in a drawer hidden away. I wish I had shelves to display them though, great idea.
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I’m going to have to really get serious about making Indian food now. I had a fairly good restaurant nearby in France so there was no urgent need but now, the nearest Indian restaurant is literally about 140km away, grr.
This looks like a gorgeous soup though Eva – beautifully presented too!
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Thank you kindly Charles. We have an Indian restaurant with very good food reasonably close by, but it’s not the healthiest thing so I prefer to make it at home. I have a couple of indian cook books but I use the internet a lot when I search out recipes.
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I love how you describe hanging on to the cookbook for the pictures — I can totally relate — it is what it is. (and there’s nothing quite as disappointing as the experience of flipping through a cookbook only to discover that it has no pictures at all… talk about a lunch bag letdown – how is that even possible? 😉 ). Love the pretty swirls you created here Eva — they look beautiful. Your lemon lentil soup does appear wonderfully creamy — I’m so accustomed to using a vegetable or chicken broth as a soup base, I should try it with water sometime as you have done here to experience the difference (especially with nice spices like these carrying the flavour).
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Hi Kelly, indeed adding the stock will enhance the flavour but as you mentioned the spices and the lemon were strong enough to carry it. Publishing a cook book is a very expensive project, leaving out photos is one way to save money but it makes me wonder if the recipes were even tried and tested!
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Gorgeous, Eva! It looks like something you’d get at a fine restaurant. Thanks for explaining the spiral technique so perfectly!! Hope you’re having a terrific weekend 🙂
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Thank you so much Liz, I am indeed very flattered.
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I wonder if my preserved lemons would work in this. Don’t get me wrong, nothing needs changing here. This looks delicious and is very well photographed. I just have some preserved lemons!
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I have preserved lemons too…Barb from Profiteroles and Ponytails gave them to me for Xmas. Let me know if the flavour worked well in the soup Greg.
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This looks fabulous!
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thank you.
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How wonderful, I have dahl in my pantry from the last time i went shopping with ChgJ.. and then i had NO idea what to do with them.. THIS i will do.. i love creamy soups.. thank you eva.. c
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Hi Celi, I hope you liked the soup. It’s really cold again in Toronto so soup is perfect.
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such a fancy soup plating!
Never had lentil soup before and i just purchased the brown lentil, tempting to give this recipe a try…..
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Thanks Dedy, I hope to see a blog about your lentil soup experience.
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What a shame the cookbook turned out to be such a disappointment! I have a few cookbooks (more than a few) that people have given me over the years and I have never cooked from them. I keep going back to them to see if there’s any inspiration there but sadly, nothing gets me excited. It does seem such a waste xx
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Hi Charlie, it’s so frustrating to make a recipe and not enjoy it, all that effort to waste. Recipes on line with reviews are my favourite because you can assess a recipe from reading them!
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‘Tis the season, Eva: I have been making a different lentil soup each week. The first was kind of Indian-style, the second more Italian with tomatoes and sausage. I like the seasonings you have used here, the Meyer lemon and yogurt and cumin. And I like the idea of pureeing lentils, too.
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Hi Sharyn, I hope your new digs are going well. How has your mother adjusted to not having you around, hope all is OK. Thank you for your comment, I know you have lemon trees at your mom’s place, hopefully you can still get free lemons from her!
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Meyer lemons are the best, aren’t they! Lentils are good too. To combine them is interesting and delicious!
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Thank you very much Liz. The wind is blowing very hard today and chilling the house down, soup is perfect for this type of weather.
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It is frigid in the Hudson Valley and a bowl your soup would be so comforting. Thanks for the garnish/design tutorial, now I know how it is done I am going to show off.
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Thanks so much Norma, I’m going to have soup today for lunch too…it’s just too cold out there not to. I hope your guests enjoy your artistry.
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When I saw the title I was expecting something very different. This looks better than what I thought I’d see. I love pappadums. I like putting them into the pan and watching them explode. (well sort of explode)
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Hi Maureen, I just microwaved these for about a minute — no need for any oil which saves a bit on calories. This particular brand is very salty. Thank you for your lovely compliment.
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Warming and delicious! Have to make some soup for the dinner later!
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Hi Angie, it’s perfect for these very very cold winter days.
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I made a biryani at the weekend, thoroughly recommend making one sometime. It was just meat and rice though and needed something else along side. I think this soup/Dahl kept chunky would be delicious.
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Hi David, I’ll check out a biryani recipe for tonight, sounds great. Leaving the soup chunky would certainly be a delightful and more casual approach.
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Very tasty looking lentil soup. I especially like the super smooth looking texture, and of course the design. Crunchy pappadums as well to carry on the Indian theme. 🙂
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Hi Maria, it is certainly soup weather these days, so cold!
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Thanks for teaching me how to do those gorgeous designs on the soup, I have seen them so many times but can’t do them on soup, only cake 😛
And the flavour in this soup looks so delicious, lemon and lentil is new but perfect!
Cheers
CCU
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Thank you for your comment CCU.
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