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Red lentil cream soup

Red Lentil Cream Soup

Light, rich, smooth, with a velvety taste! This red lentil cream soup comes out hearty and thick. It's a Turkish dish, and it wins everyone over — kids especially love its bright color!

Julia M.

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Red lentils

250

Water (or broth)

Potatoes

250

Onion

Carrot

Tomato paste

Garlic

Lemon

0.5

Salt

Dried spices

Vegetable oil

Butter

Paprika

Ground red pepper

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 22 % 4 g

Fats 17 % 3 g

Carbohydrates 61 % 11 g

82 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Cooking time: 40 min

Step 1:

How do you make red lentil cream soup? Start by gathering your ingredients.
Step 2:

Peel and rinse the vegetables — onion, carrot, potatoes, and garlic. Rinse the lentils several times in cold water, then drain them.
Step 3:

Pour a little vegetable oil into a hot skillet. Chop the onion and carrot and sauté them for a couple of minutes.
Step 4:

Then add the chopped potatoes and tomato paste to the skillet. Stir and cook everything together for another 2–4 minutes. The vegetables can be cut any size, since you'll blend it all later.
Step 5:

Separately, bring the water to a boil in a pot and add the sautéed vegetables, then the rinsed lentils. Simmer the soup over low heat for 15–20 minutes, going by how soft the potatoes are and the cooking time on the lentil package. At the end, season with salt and spices. I use ground black pepper, coriander, and a few dried herbs like mint and basil.
Step 6:

Pour the soup into a countertop blender, add the garlic, and blend until smooth. Set a little of the broth aside so you can adjust the thickness of the soup.
Step 7:

Return the puréed soup to the pot and warm it through for another couple of minutes. Your red lentil cream soup is ready!
Step 8:

Make a spiced butter to go with it: melt the butter and stir in the paprika and ground red pepper.
Step 9:

Ladle the soup into bowls, add a squeeze of lemon juice, and drizzle over a little of the spiced butter! Enjoy!

A note on water: whether or not the recipe gives an exact amount, it's best to go by your own preference (thick versus thin soup), the size of your pot, and the ingredients you're using. Keep in mind that the author's idea of how much meat, potatoes, grains, and so on belong in the soup may not match yours. In practice, if it's your first time, don't make a whole pot at once — make a small batch to taste, for one or two people. Scale all the ingredients down to 1–2 servings and figure the water at about 1 cup per serving for a very thick soup, up to 1.5–2 cups for a thinner one, remembering that some will boil off. Once you've tasted that small batch, you can fine-tune both the liquid and the proportions to your liking. After that, like most seasoned cooks, you'll be able to add water and ingredients by eye.
You can melt the butter in the microwave or over a water bath (double boiler). In the microwave: cut the butter into small pieces and put it in a microwave-safe container, covering it with a paper towel so it doesn't splatter. Melt it on the lowest power or the defrost setting — start with about 5 seconds, and if it isn't melted yet, run it another 5 seconds, repeating until it's done. Over a water bath: you'll need two pots of different sizes. Fill the larger one with water and set it on the stove. Rest the smaller one on top so it sits about halfway into the water, and put the cut-up butter in it. The boiling water gently melts the butter; stir it a little to speed things up, and take it off the heat as soon as the pieces have fully melted.