Coconut Red Lentil Soup

This coconut red lentil soup is one of my go-to’s lately, so I wanted to share it with you. Since I stopped working on this blog like I was prior I don’t always take pictures of my food. So here we are. There isn’t any soup left to take a picture, so you get my latest sleepy Sunday errand day picture. 🙂 Maybe I’ll update a picture the next time I make it….

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 stalks celery, sliced
• 7 large carrots, coined
• 1.5 TBSP curry powder
• 1/2 TBSP garam masala
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4-1/2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
• 7 cups water
• 1 pound red lentils, rinsed well
• 3-4 TBSP tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf, remove before adding spinach at the end
• 1/4-1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt during cooking, more to taste/serve after adding in lemon and seeing what you want
• 1 can light or full fat coconut milk, I use the Trader Joe’s light can in this one
• 5 oz spinach, stirred in and wilted at very end
• 1 lemon, squeezed – if making ahead of time, I do 1/2 lemon first day and then the other half when reheating pot up the second day

Method

1. In a large stock pot, sauté the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots for about 10 minutes ish. I add each to the pot in this order as I’m chopping them up. The onion and garlic get a little heads start with sautéing first..
2. Stir in the spices until aromatic and toasted a bit. Curry, Garam, Cayenne, Ceylon cinnamon
3. Add the water, red lentils, tomato paste, bay leaf, ground pepper, and salt. Cover, bring to a boil (stay near as you need to lower the heat some right away), lower the heat once boiling, and then cook covered on a medium simmer until the lentils are fully cooked. I set the timer for 15 minutes, stir it at this point to prevent the lentils sticking to the bottom, and then cook covered for about 5 more minutes or until lentils are cooked.
4. Once lentils are cooked, I lower the heat to super lower, remove the cover off, and leave it off.
5. Remove the bay leaf.
6. Now stir in the coconut milk and spinach. Let it sit for around 10 minutes. Squeeze in half of a lemon, stir, and taste it and see what it needs. A sprinkle more of curry, garam, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, pepper, …. whatever you are feeling. I will say you might want to let it sit for a bit long and then taste/doctor it up as the flavors meld together more with time. You can leave it on super low for awhile and then just turn it off until it cools. It often tastes better made the night before and then reheated the next day too. Enjoy this hug in a bowl or large mug with a spoon! Xx