Spiced Red Lentil Soup

Method

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1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot and cook the onions and carrots over medium heat for 10 minutes until softened.

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2. Add the garlic for 1 minute.

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3. Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric and cinnamon and stir for 60 seconds until fragrant — this blooming step is where the flavour comes from.

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4. Stir in the tomato purée and cook 2 minutes.

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5. Add the lentils and stir to coat them in the spiced oil.

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6. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil, then simmer partly covered for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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7. The soup is ready when the lentils have disintegrated entirely and it has thickened. Add the salt now, and loosen with hot water if it is too thick.

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8. Stir in the lemon juice and taste — it should be bright, not flat. Add more lemon if it is.

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9. Melt the butter in a small pan with the cumin seeds until they crackle, then take off the heat and stir in the Aleppo pepper and dried mint.

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10. Ladle the soup into bowls and pour the sizzling spiced butter over each one at the table.

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Chef’s Tips

• Salt at the end. Salting lentils early slows their breakdown considerably.
• The lemon is not a garnish. Without acid the soup tastes muddy and heavy.
• The spiced butter takes ninety seconds and transforms the bowl. Do not skip it.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the usual stand-in when you are out of fresh garlic — it will not caramelise the same way, but it carries the flavour.
• Fresh herbs work in place of the dried mint at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.

Pairing Suggestions

• Warm flatbread
• A dollop of yoghurt
• A simple green salad

Storage & Reheating

Refrigerate up to 5 days and freeze 3 months. It thickens considerably; loosen with stock when reheating.

Common questions

Nutritional Highlights

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Treat these as an estimate — brands and cuts vary.