I almost never make a quick dinner. I am not sure why, but I haven’t cultivated a long list of quick, go-to meals that you can easily whip together in under 30 minutes. Probably because I don’t have kids and I often use cooking a meal while drinking a glass or two of wine as a way to unwind. So, I don’t necessarily have to make something super fast.
But I recently made a soup so quickly I couldn’t believe it was so delicious. I had a late meeting and was trying to get dinner started before I ran to Wilson to play a pre-dinner game of hockey.
I grabbed my ingredients, roughly chopped the onion and vegetables and then grated the ginger. I opened a few cans, threw it all into a pot and that was basically it. It was honestly almost just that simple.
And the better part is that this is a soup I will happily make again. I generally think that most dishes that are worth eating take some extra time, but in this case, this recipe defies that theory.
While it does take some extra time to cut things perfectly, for example scraping all the white off of the inside of bell peppers and making sure that your onion pieces are all the same size, it frankly doesn’t make a big difference in taste. So, while on this abbreviated cooking time, I just roughly chopped and didn’t worry too much about the look of each piece (something I typically take time to care about).
This experiment to quickly cook more than anything taught me that while chopping carefully and methodically can be relaxing, being able to throw together a healthy dinner on demand and still make time for something fun, is a great option, too.
Now onto the soup at hand. This recipe resulted in a very satisfying meal. I didn’t realize it until after I made it, but it is vegan, in addition to being a vegetarian meal. It had a ton of flavor, and it was really filling. Not to mention healthy.
And even better, this recipe got the husband stamp of approval. AKA, he didn’t miss the meat.
You could play around with the toppings if you like. You could obviously add meat if you want to (chicken would probably be best) and croutons are always an option.
Try this dish the next time you have to whip up something quickly. I didn’t even mention one additional bonus: it’s budget friendly. I think the ingredients for about eight services only cost around $25. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 can coconut milk
- 2 can diced tomatoes
- 2 cups dry red lentils
- 3 cups kale or spinach
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Garnish: chopped cilantro and chopped nuts (cashews or pistachios)
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the coconut oil over medium heat and stir-fry the onion, garlic, shallot and ginger until the onion is translucent (about 5 minutes).
- Add the curry powder, and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute.
- Add the vegetable broth, coconut milk, diced tomatoes and lentils.
- Cover and bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes, until the lentils are very tender.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the kale or spinach just before serving and garnish with cilantro and nuts.