Spicy Coconut Lentil Soup

Perfect Pairing:  Hand chopper

 

I am a huge fan of soup, especially during fall and winter.  As soon as I feel that first cool breeze of fall I start thinking of simmering pots of chili, soup and stews.  I will be sharing a lot of my favorite fall soup recipes here throughout the season.  This Spicy Coconut Lentil Soup made a great, light, mid-week dinner.  It was easy to make, full of flavor, and it made my house smell quite inviting.  It has some exotic flavors like chile peppers, coconut milk and ginger but was still very comforting.   I will say that it was a hard subject to photograph! 

The Perfect Pairing for this soup recipe is the popular hand chopper.  Mine is from Pampered Chef.  I personally enjoy chopping and dicing but sometimes I am just not in the mood, especially if I just want to move things along.  I used the hand chopper for the fresh ginger, garlic and chiles in this recipe.  I peeled the ginger and garlic and chopped them together.  I seeded the peppers, sliced into chunks, and finished them off with the hand chopper.  Chop chop!

Spicy Coconut Lentil Soup

Lindsay at Perfecting the Pairing

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

·         2 tsp coconut oil or olive oil

·         1 red onion, chopped

·         2 inch piece of peeled ginger, chopped

·         5 garlic cloves, chopped

·         2-4 chile peppers (Serrano, jalapeno, red chile), seeded and chopped

·         5 cups low sodium chicken broth

·         15 oz can light coconut milk

·         1 cup red lentils, sorted and rinsed

·         1 ½ tsp cumin

·         1 ½ tsp paprika

·         1 tsp ground coriander

·         1 Tb honey

·         2 tsp chile powder

·         Juice of 2 limes

·         Salt and pepper

·         Cilantro

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet and add the chopped onion.  Cook until onion begins to soften, add ginger, garlic and chile peppers.  Season mixture with salt and pepper.  Cook over medium heat until everything has softened.

While the onion mixture is cooking, combine chicken broth, coconut milk, lentils, cumin, paprika and coriander in a soup pan.  Bring to a boil.  Once the onion mixture has softened add it to the lentil mixture.  Simmer over low heat for approximately 40 minutes, or until the lentils are soft and starting to break down.  Stir occasionally.

Once the lentils are cooked add the honey, chile powder and lime juice.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.  Top each bowl with cilantro.

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