Over the last two weeks, I’ve been experiencing a “food rut” of sorts.
No matter what meal of the day it was, I could not come up with a single thing that sounded appetizing to me. I searched on Pinterest for close to an hour one night to come up with an idea for dinner. But, the cooking gods were not in my favor, and my family and I went with take out. But, this week, during the “polar vortex,” I finally had something worth raving about.
Overnight we went from 75 F and sunny all the way down to 20 F and snowing. I accidentally slept through my alarm on the day of the freeze and forgot to pack myself a lunch. So, my friends and I trekked through the newly formed winter wonderland to a café by our school for some grub. Nothing screams snow to me like soup does. When I saw an Indian lentil soup on the menu, I knew I had to have it. I was grateful for some inspiration to pull me out of my rut.
Not only was the soup absolutely delicious, but it was also totally unique. I went home that night and did some experimenting. I tried two different renditions before I found something that worked. I landed on the recipe below and it was great! I also loved this recipe because it was very easy. I very rarely have more that 20 minutes to make dinner, and soup usually takes more than an hour to gain full flavor. That being said, I wasn’t sure that a 20-minute soup would taste very good, but believe me, it does.
Ingredients
- Lentils:
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon ginger, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon course sea salt
- 5 cups water
- 2 cups red lentils
- Garnish
- 1/4 cups onion, diced
- 1 cup cucumber, diced
- 1 serrano, thinly sliced
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
Instructions
- Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add oil, onion, garlic and ginger. Cook until onions are tender for about 6 minutes.
- Add turmeric, cumin and salt. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add all of the water and lentils. Bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer while covered. For 15 minutes cook until lentils are soft and mixture thickens. Season with salt.
- To prepare garnish: Combine onion with cucumber, serrano, cilantro, and vinegar.
- Serve soup and top with garnish.
