Egyptian Red Lentil Soup

Recipe Description:

This vegetarian Egyptian red lentil soup will warm your heart on the coolest of winter days. The cumin, onions and garlic provide the authentic Egyptian taste, and the addition of potatoes, carrots and other spices makes it even more hearty and nutritious.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 Hours

Servings: 4-6

Difficulty: Easy

Recipe Ingredients:

1 cup organic red lentils,

cider vinegar, liquid whey, or fresh lemon juice

1 yellow onion, diced

2 medium organic potatoes, peeled and diced

1 cup organic baby carrots, diced

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1½ tablespoons of coconut oil, grass-fed ghee or olive oil (for light sauteing)

2-3 whole bay leaves

1-2 tablespoons organic ground cumin, to taste

unrefined mineral salt and freshly ground black pepper pepper, to taste

a few crushed red chilli peppers (optional)

extra virgin olive oil and freshly squeezed lime (to season after cooking)

Recipe Instructions:

Soak lentils: Rinse lentils in warm water several times and soak overnight in filtered water with a tablespoon of something acidic like apple cider vinegar, fresh lemon/lime juice, or liquid whey. Soaking legumes overnight before cooking helps neutralize some of the phytic acid and other anti-nutrients that otherwise get in the way of nutrient absorption and digestion.

Dice and saute onions and garlic: Dice a medium yellow onion, and mince 3-4 cloves of garlic. Then, add a tablespoon and half of coconut oil, grass-fed ghee OR olive oil to a stainless steel pot, and saute the onions lightly until they're fragrant and have turned into a golden translucent color. Then, add the garlic and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add lentils and water: Discard soaking water from lentils and rinse a few times. Add lentils to the pot, followed by three and half cups of filtered water. Bring to a boil and lower to medium heat.

Add potatoes and carrots: Wash and dice two potatoes and a cup of baby carrots. Add them to the pot and stir well. Add the whole bay leaves and leave to cook, covered and on medium heat, for about an hour.

Add the spices: When the carrots and potatoes have cooked, turn off the heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of ground cumin, salt and pepper (to taste) and if you wish to make it spicy, add a few (5-10) particles of crushed red chili peppers (be aware that even a few extra pieces can make it unbearably spicy). Stir well and taste-test to see if the spices need to be adjusted.

Blend: Remove whole bay leaves and discard. Blend other other ingredients to a liquid soup using an immersion blender (better than transferring to another blender, but that certainly works if you don't have a hand-held blender).

Serve: Serve soup warm. Add freshly squeezed lime/lemon juice and olive oil to season soup in individual plates. The soup can be served plain, with sprouted or sourdough bread, or with brown rice.

Author: midEATS

MidEATS was founded by real foodie and writer Heba Saleh and lawyer-mom Brenda Abdelall in August 2011, with the goal of presenting to the world the best Middle Eastern REAL food blog the internet has ever seen. We created this site to teach the world how to cook Middle Eastern food and to enjoy the process. We know that it isn’t just the food that makes Middle Eastern food so great: it’s the ingredients, history, and preparation that makes our food into a truly delicious meal. We will share with you the stories and traditions of Middle Eastern cuisine and culture. View all posts by midEATS

1 thought on “Egyptian Red Lentil Soup”

Eat Nourishing Admin says:

March 1, 2012 at 11:34 pm

A new favorite! We had this for dinner and lunch the next day and it was just amazing. I didn’t have red lentils so I just used green ones. The freshly squeezed lemon juice on top really made the flavors pop! We served with homemade probiotic sour cream. Awesome!

Recipe Description:

Recipe Ingredients:

Recipe Instructions:

Author: midEATS

1 thought on “Egyptian Red Lentil Soup”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply