Curried Lentil Soup
By: MamaSteph
Published: Friday, December 10, 2010 - 10:01pm

Ingredients




Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 jalapeno pepper, minced (remove seeds if you don’t like the heat)
6 cups water
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
1 cup lentils (brown or red are most commonly found in grocery stores)
1/2 cup pearl barley (do NOT add more, or it will soak up all your liquid)
15 oz can of diced tomatoes
salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

1 Method: 2 Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat.  Add chopped onion, and cook until translucent. Add the garlic, jalapeno pepper, and all spices, except salt and pepper.  Stir this in well and cook for a minute or two. 3 Stir in the water, stock, lentils, barley, tomatoes, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes or a bit longer, if necessary, until the lentils are tender. Serve in a soup mug or bowl and add a tsp of sour cream if you like.  I think it adds a nice, cool creamy contrast to the spicy soup. 4 Note: you’ll probably need to add more broth to this soup if you store it in the fridge, as the lentils and the barley soak up the spicy broth during storage.  A bit of chicken or vegetable broth or even some warm water can be used to loosen it up again when reheating.