It is freezing cold in Amman, where I live, this week! We are experiencing a cold, polar front accompanied with much rain and some snow. My girls are overly excited about the snow… I just hope that it snows enough that they could play and make a snow man!!! In this freezing, cold weather, all I could think of all morning is yummy Red Lentil Soup.
Red Lentil Soup is a traditional Middle Eastern Cuisine dish!! It is so much part of our Middle Eastern food culture, that Red Lentil Soup is the customary soup served during Ramadan at the start of the “Ftour” meal. In Arabic, Red Lentil Soup is called “Shorabet 3adas – شوربة عدس” whereby the “3” stands for an Arabic letter similar to A, but deeper in sound.
There are several versions of this famous Middle Eastern Red Lentil Soup. Some versions are quite basic and use a few basic ingredients only, while others include vegetables such as potatoes or carrots. The spices used to spice up this famous Red Lentil Soup also vary from using just cumin, to adding curry, or mixed spices.
Some Red Lentil Soup recipes use coriander both dried and fresh, while others don’t use coriander in the recipe but for garnishing only. Other recipes use parsley.
The basic ingredients constant in all versions of red lentil soup are: split red lentils, onions and lemon.
Today’s recipe of Red Lentil Soup uses carrots. However, I do sometimes prepare this famous Arabic soup with potatoes, or both potatoes and carrots. I also sometimes prepare the basic version without any additions. Whichever version of Red Lentil Soup you use, you can be sure that you will end up with a delicious and nutritionist soup… comfort soup at its best!!!
The nice thing about Red Lentil Soup is that it is a meal by itself! Serve Red Lentil Soup with some toasted Arabic pita bread or some garlic bread and you have a fulfilling meal.
Portion below is for 6-8 servings depending on size of soup bowl.
Red Lentil Soup Recipe
Preparation time: 5 min Cook time: 35 min
Ingredients:
2½ cups split red lentils
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (olive, canola, corn, sunflower)
1 large onion finely diced, (1 cup diced onions)
2 large carrots finely diced, (1 cup diced carrots)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups water
1½ teaspoon salt (increase or decrease to taste)
3 cups water (in addition to the 4 cups above)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (increase to taste)
If you want to spice your soup, add some red chili flakes or cayenne pepper.
How to make Red Lentil Soup Recipe:
- Clean the red lentils by removing any stones or derbies. Measure 2½ cups cleaned split red lentils and rinse with water. Put in colander to drain.
- Dice the onions and carrots.
- In a pot, heat the oil. Then add the onions and carrots and turn for a 3 minutes.
- Add the red lentils and cumin powder, and toss for another 3 minutes. Then add the turmeric, black pepper and 4 cups water. Simmer, covered, over low heat until lentils are cooked. This will take between 20 and 30 minutes.
- With a hand held mixer (or a food processor) ground the soup. Add the salt and the additional 3 cups of water. You may increase or decrease the water based on your preference on the density of the soup you want. Simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add the lemon juice, mix and serve.
Garnish your Red Lentil Soup with fresh chopped parsley, or fresh coriander, mint leaves, or lemon wedges.
Hope you enjoyed today’s easy recipe: Red Lentil Soup; a traditional Arabic food dish. Bon appetite.
Have you ever tried Middle Eastern Style Red Lentil Soup?
اضغط الرابط لقراءة وصفة شوربة العدس الأحمر باللغة العربية
