Thrifty Dahl Soup with Dripping Toast

Name: Thrifty Dahl Soup with Dripping Toast
Total time: 1500 s
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 2 cups red lentils; 5 cups water; 1 large onion; small piece fresh ginger; 4 tbsp lemon juice; 2 cloves garlic; 1 and a half tsp garam masala; 1 tsp ground turmeric; half a red chilli; 3 tsp vegetable stock; salt and black pepper; 2 tsp cumin seeds; butter

Joanne @JoanneinBath

Bath, UK

January is all about spending less and eating with a little more restraint. Using just some red lentils and an onion this soup costs just a few pence and makes 6 bowls of steaming, comforting, spicy soup. Dripping is the new gourmet butter, which I'm delighted about as I've always avoided low-fat anything and would rather not have toast than use processed 'healthy' spreads. So actually, although this might not sound like a virtuous as well as thrifty lunch, now that animal fats are being reinvented as good for you, it is!

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Ingredients

25 mins

6 servings

2 cupsred lentils
5 cupswater
1large onion
small piece fresh ginger
4 tbsplemon juice
2 clovesgarlic
1and a half tsp garam masala
1 tspground turmeric
half a red chilli
3 tspvegetable stock
salt and black pepper
2 tspcumin seeds
butter

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Steps

25 mins

1

Measure the red lentils into a sieve and rinse briefly under cold running water. Transfer to a large pan and add the water.
2

Roughly chop the onion and finely slice the ginger and garlic. Add to the pan together with the lemon juice and the half red chilli.
3

Place the pan on a high heat and add the spices, vegetable stock and a good amount of black pepper. Bring to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer gently for about 20 minutes.
4

When the lentils are broken down and forming a mush, taste for seasoning then blend until smooth with a stick blender. Remove the chilli first if you don't want the soup to be too spicy.
5

Dry fry the cumin until toasted and aromatic. Serve the soup with a knob of butter, sprinkled with cumin and extra black pepper and lemon juice if you wish, together with hot toast spread with dripping.

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Cooksnaps

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Joanne @JoanneinBath

on January 04, 2016 17:03

Bath, UK

I enjoy cooking mostly because I like eating, but also because it's a great way to relax at the end of the day. I work in book publishing and especially enjoy creating cookbooks written by cooks who love cooking and sharing food rather than creating show stopping dishes that take days to put together. As Nigel Slater would say; 'we are, after all, simply making ourselves something to eat'. I live with my lovely daughter Isobel who rarely pays any kind of compliment but will occasionally admit something I've cooked was quite nice, and our dog Piper, who will eat anything.