Lentil Soup with Lemon

Directions

1. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and cook until the onion has turned golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cumin, kosher salt, black pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon of chili powder. Cook and stir 2 minutes more until the spices are fragrant.
2. Stir in the chicken broth, lentils, and carrot. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes.
3. Pour half of the soup into a blender, filling the pitcher no more than halfway full. Hold down the lid of the blender with a folded kitchen towel, and carefully start the blender, using a few quick pulses to get the soup moving before leaving it on to puree. Puree in batches until smooth and pour into a clean pot. Alternately, you can use a stick blender and puree the soup right in the cooking pot. Do not puree all of the soup, leave it a little chunky.
4. Stir in the lemon juice and cilantro, then season to taste with salt. Drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of chili powder to serve.

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Reviews (271)

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96

Joy

Dec. 14, 2009

"This recipe is awesome! Such great flavor! Only complaint is that it only made around 3 sevings. Next time I will double the recipe as I like to have extra and freeze individual portions...." See more"

54

Matt Russell

Jan. 18, 2011

"Very good recipe. I made it twice. The second time I doubled the lemon and added 2 cloves of raw minced garlic to the soup right before I pureed it. The garlic and extra lemon give it a nice kick! ..." See more Also, I like putting a little sour cream on top of each bowl of soup, instead of olive oil."

53

Captain Ironspine

Jan. 9, 2009

"This recipe was wonderful! I made some changes to the original recipe, varying only slightly. I substituted shredded butternut squash in place of the carrot, and I curried my lentils before adding the..." See morem with the broth. The curried flavor really carried over well through out the simmering, and the texture was really nice when I used an immersion blender on the whole soup to get everything blended very fine. Overall, I prefer to blend everything rather than leave parts of it chunky. Thank you for the recipe!"