Last evening was blustery and cold here in New England. We even had some snow — it was the perfect night for this delicious version of red lentil soup! Red lentil soup seems to have various versions around the world, each with its unique variety of spices. The star of this international version is the spice, fenugreek, which has a wonderfully distinctive sweet smell that is similar to maple syrup. In fact, if you can’t find fenugreek (but please try!), you can substitute it in this recipe by omitting the sugar and adding 1 tsp maple sugar. The simmering of this soup melds the flavor of the fenugreek very nicely with the other spices in the dish — I hope you’ll try it tonight!
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely grated or minced
1 red Thai chili, minced
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 cup red lentils
7 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
Crusty bread
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Stir in yellow onion, garlic, chili, cumin and coriander seeds. Sauté 4 minutes. Stir in carrots and cook another 3 minutes. Stir in fenugreek, sugar, tomato paste, red lentils and chicken stock. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 40 minutes with lid ajar. Stir occasionally while simmering.
Remove soup from heat. Add lemon juice and adjust seasoning (I added another 1 tsp or so of salt, which seemed about right). Ladle soup into serving bowls and garnish with red onion and parsley. Serve with crusty bread.
Serves 6.
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Great photo! I love the composition, aperture and your colors look great, too. Very nice work. Oh, and finally, a recipe I can try–and it looks delicious, too. Thanks for posting!
I appreciate the style and food comments very much. You can sub the chicken stock for veg stock just fine — it’s really the spices in this dish that count!
Your photos are always a treat! Lentils are definitely a staple in most vegan kitchens, but there are so many recipes and styles one can never get bored. Can’t wait to try this dish 🙂
I just made a red lentil dish two nights ago. I love your recipe and I’m going to use it next time, which will most likely be in a few days. I have never used fenugreek before. I’m looking forward to trying it. Also like how you garnished it with red onion & parsley.
Thanks! Fenugreek adds a nice, warm aroma to this dish. I use whole fenugreek seeds, that I grind with a big, heavy mortor and pestle (the seeds are very hard, but it’s worth the effort).
Funnily enough, I have a red lentil soup on the hob at the moment. Your version looks really delicious though…
Thank you! It seems that many readers have been making red lentil soup this week. Must be the season.
This is an utterly amazing, dish – so long since I’ve made it – just been inspired!
Thanks for the comment — glad to hear that I’ve (or the dish has) inspired you!
It certainly did, it was dish my Mother woudl make me as a kid so there’s big emotional content here – tahnks again!
Fabulous. I made this today and it was wonderful. Just an fyi, the instructions do not mention when to put the red lentils into the soup. 🙂 I figured it out though… Wonderful lentil dish. Thank you!
Oh, no! Just updated it. Thanks so much for the feedback!