Description
This easy carrot soup is gently spiced and thickened with red lentils, drizzled with a more-ish coriander lime oil and a dollop of Greek yogurt.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1/2 tbsp Cumin Seeds
- Large Pinch Chilli Flakes (Red Pepper)
- 1/2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 500g (17.5 oz) Carrots, roughly grated or finely sliced
- 100g (4 oz) Split Red Lentils
- 750ml (3 1/4 cups) Chicken (you can make your own here) or Vegetable Stock
- Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- Total (Fage) 0% Greek Yogurt
- Small Bunch Fresh Coriander (Cilantro), roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Zest & Juice of 1 Lime
Instructions
- Either chop the carrots into tiny pieces (don’t worry about peeling them), or if you don’t have the patience like me, I think Gizzi’s suggestion from the book to just roughly grate them is fantastic.
- Heat a large saucepan and dry fry the cumin seeds and the chilli flakes for about a minute, making sure they don’t burn but when they release their lovely Indian aromas.
- Add the oil, carrot and lentils to the pan and fry for another few minutes until the carrot starts to soften a little.
- Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the Coriander Lime Oil. The whole thing is pretty simple. Add your roughly chopped coriander to a mortar and pestle, bash to a paste, add the oil and lime zest and muddle together until well combined. You can obviously forgo chopping the coriander all together and do the whole thing in a mini chopper if you have one, but I think a good mortar and pestle is a fantastic investment for making sauces, dressings and curries, especially for a student. You can even use it to make mayonnaise. I use a ceramic Cole & Mason mortar and pestle, which while it was given to me by the guys at Cole & Mason and John Lewis, I would still be waxing lyrical about it anyway, as it is one of the best pieces of kitchen equipment I’ve ever had (because probably, because I don’t have the space for it and I can always use my Mother’s at home I have not taken the new cream Kenwood K-Mix I got for Christmas out of its box). My ceramic one will set you back £25, but for a bit more they also do lovely marble ones.
- Remove the soup from the heat and using a stick blender puree until smooth. Add the cream and season with lots of sea salt and black pepper, and whizz up again.
- Return to the heat to make sure it is heated through, and serve with a good dollop of Greek yogurt and a drizzle of the Coriander Lime Oil on top of each bowl.