Red lentil soup with lemon
Red lentils melt into a thick, golden soup on their own, and a squeeze of lemon at the end makes it taste bright and alive.
- 45 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $1.70 a serving
- 380 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1½ cups lentils, red lentils, rinsed
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for serving
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 2 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 380 calories, 20 g protein, 60 g carbs and 8 g fat, and costs about $1.70 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No vegetable broth? Chicken broth works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion and carrots and the garlic. the lentils in a strainer and pick out any tiny stones.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Dolly’s tip: Make sure the bag says red lentils. Brown and green ones hold their shape and won’t melt into soup.Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft, about 6 minutes.
Medium heatTimer: 6 min
Stir in the garlic, cumin, paprika, turmeric and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Keep stirring. Spices and tomato paste taste toasty after a minute and bitter after five.Add the lentils, broth, water, salt and pepper, turn the heat up to high and .
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
to low, set the , and until the lentils have fallen apart and the soup is thick, 20 to 25 minutes.
Reduce the heat. It means turning the burner down, usually to medium-low or low, so food cooks gently instead of hard. Electric burners cool slowly, so lift the pan off for a moment if it’s bubbling hard.
How you’ll know: Within a minute the bubbling calms to a gentle simmer, or the sizzle turns quiet.
Lid ajar. Lid ajar means resting the lid on the pot slightly off-center, leaving a small gap. Some steam escapes, so the sauce thickens and doesn’t boil over, while most of the heat stays in.
How you’ll know: A thin wisp of steam drifts out of the gap, and the pot bubbles gently without spilling.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 20 min
Dolly’s tip: Red lentils sink and can stick, so scrape the bottom with your spoon every 5 minutes.Turn off the heat and squeeze in the lemon juice.
Taste and add salt at a time until it tastes bright. If it’s thicker than you like, stir in of water.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Splash. A splash is a small, quick pour, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon. It’s there to loosen or brighten a dish, so the exact amount doesn’t matter.
How you’ll know: The dish looks a little looser or tastes a little brighter, not soupy.
Dolly’s tip: Soup that tastes flat almost always needs more salt. If salt isn’t it, a little more lemon is.Ladle into bowls, with a little olive oil and scatter the parsley on top.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
