RED LENTIL SOUP WITH LEMON AND YOGHURT

This is a tweaked version of Melissa Clark’s red lentil soup from the New York Times, pulled from a stack of reader comments and adjusted to suit what’s actually in an Australian kitchen and winter garden. It’s quick, cheap, freezer-friendly, and the half-pureed texture turns a humble bowl of lentils into something that genuinely satisfies. A dollop of homemade yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon at the table makes all the difference.

Ingredients

  • 45ml olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
  • 1 large brown onion, finely chopped (about 200g)
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 30g tomato paste (about 2 tablespoons)
  • 5g ground cumin (1 teaspoon)
  • 5g smoked paprika (1 teaspoon)
  • ¼ teaspoon chilli powder or cayenne, plus extra to dust
  • ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock, made with stock powder or Vegeta
  • 300g red lentils, rinsed
  • 2 large carrots, peeled and diced (about 300g)
  • 2 large handfuls English spinach, roughly chopped (about 150g)
  • Juice of ½ lemon, plus more to taste
  • 3 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped

To Serve

  • Plain yoghurt or kefir
  • Lemon wedges
  • Sumac for sprinkling
  • Extra olive oil for drizzling
  • Crusty bread or focaccia

Method

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until golden and softened, about 4 minutes.
  2. Stir in the tomato paste, cumin, smoked paprika, chilli, salt and pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring, until the spices are fragrant and the tomato paste has darkened slightly.
  3. Add the stock, lentils and carrots. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Cook for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are completely soft and beginning to fall apart.
  4. Using a stick mixer or jug blender, puree about half the soup, then stir it back through the pot. The texture should be creamy with some lentil and carrot pieces still visible.
  5. Stir in the chopped spinach and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, just until wilted.
  6. Take the pot off the heat. Stir in the lemon juice and most of the coriander. Taste and adjust salt, pepper and lemon until the flavours sing.
  7. Ladle into bowls. Top each with a generous spoonful of yoghurt, a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of sumac and the remaining coriander, with a wedge of lemon on the side.

Notes

The water question. Melissa Clark’s original calls for an extra 2 cups of water on top of the stock, and the most consistent comment from readers is that this makes the soup too thin. Skip it. The lentils absorb plenty as they cook and the soup thickens further as it sits.

Indian-leaning variation. Use ghee instead of olive oil, add 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger with the garlic, swap the smoked paprika for ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, and stir in 1 teaspoon garam masala along with the lemon at the end. Finish with the yoghurt as above.

Stock. Either chicken or vegetable stock works. Vegeta gives a rounder, slightly sweeter result; chicken stock powder makes it more savoury. Use whatever you’ve got open.

Spinach swap. Silverbeet works well too; chop it finer and give it an extra minute or two to wilt.

Make-ahead and freezing. The flavour improves overnight in the fridge. Freezes well in vacuum-sealed portions for up to 3 months — thaw in the fridge and reheat gently with a splash of water, as it thickens considerably as it sits.

Bulking it up. A poached egg on top turns it into a proper winter dinner. Crusty bread, focaccia or warm flatbread on the side does the same job.