Whenever we are making anything out of red lentils, 9 out of 10 times we have an empty fridge. It serves as an alarm bell for us indicating we need to go grocery shopping. Red split lentils is not only one of my favourites for the nutritional value, but to me is like an old friend, always with you in hard times and you know ‘he’ will never disappoint. Hence this time, once again I did reach for ‘my best friend’ in a search for comfort food. Although normally I’d immediately think of some creamy coconut dahl or other Indian inspired dish to make, this time I did crave some sweet and sour flavours instead. As I’ve mentioned before, the empty fridge meant I had limited ingredients to work with, but in the end the result was ABSOLUTELY wonderful. Despite being rather late in the evening, we ended up having second helpings which I think says it all. 🙂
RED SPLIT LETIL AND BLACK OLIVES SOUP
Ingredients:
1 cup of red split lentils
2 carrots (peeled and grated)
1 onion (finely chopped)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (or 3 fresh tomatoes)
about 250 g pitted black olives (or any other you prefer)
2 garlic gloves
1/2 coriander seeds
2 tablespoons ketchup (or tomato purée)
Bay leaf
pinch of chilli
2 tablespoon table vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoon olive oil
salt, pepper, parsley
Method:
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion, carrots, coriander seeds, pinch of chilli over a low heat for about 10 minutes or until softened but not burnt. Add the garlic and fry for 1 more minute. Add the ketchup, chopped tomatoes, bay leaf and sugar, simmer for a few minutes.
2. Rince red lentils and add into the pan, top up with the water (depends on consistency of soup you prefer, as for me, I like this version being quite thick), bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and continue to cook till lentils are ready.
3. Roughly chop the olives in halves, add them to the soup, add the vinegar, salt, pepper, check for seasoning and adjust it to your taste, garnish with chopped parsley.
the usual ingredients 