Creamy Red Lentil Soup with Cumin

Name: Creamy Red Lentil Soup with Cumin
Ingredients: 1 litre/1¾ pints/4 cups chicken stock; 2 onions, chopped; 10 ml/2 tsp cumin seeds; 40 g/1½ oz butter; 30 ml/2 tbsp olive oil; 225 g/8 oz/1 cup red lentils; sea salt and ground black pepper; 5–10 ml/1–2 tsp ground cumin; 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve; sea salt and ground black pepper; 60 ml/4 tbsp strained yogurt, to serve (optional)

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Lentil Cookbook

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2016

About

This puréed Middle Eastern soup is incredibly simple to make. The red lentils are flavoured with a single ingredient - cumin - which is very pleasantly refreshing.

Ingredients

225 g/8 oz/1 cup red lentils
30

Soup
Gluten-free

Method

Rinse the lentils and leave to drain. Heat the oil and butter in a large, heavy pan and stir in the cumin seeds. Cook, stirring, until they emit a nutty aroma. Add the onion, and when it begins to turn golden brown, stir in the lentils.
Pour the stock into the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for about 30 minutes, topping up wit