Description
This soup is easy to get excited about as it is delicious, satisfying, comforting, and beautiful–but it’s also, thanks to the lentils, kinda meaty. When you’re eating this, it really doesn’t seem like a vegetable-based soup. Garnish with thinly sliced mint.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste, or more to taste
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 1 cup red lentils
- 1 rib celery, diced
- 1 large carrot, diced
- 6 leaves fresh mint, thinly sliced
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 3 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt, or more to taste
Instructions
- Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion
- tomato paste
- and salt to melted butter. Cook
- stirring often
- until onion softens and tomato paste turns a deep brick red or brown color
- 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add garlic
- cumin
- and cayenne pepper; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in broth and bring to a boil. Stir in lentils
- celery
- and carrot. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer
- stirring occasionally
- until lentils and vegetables are very tender
- 30 to 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile
- make lemon-mint yogurt: Grind mint and salt in a mortar and pestle to a paste. Add yogurt
- lemon juice
- and zest; stir together until combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Taste soup for seasoning. Use an immersion blender to purée about 1/2 of the soup to achieve a creamier texture. Serve hot with spoonfuls of lemon-mint yogurt.
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 45 mins
Total Time: 1 hr
Servings: 4