From The North Grove's Kitchen: Dawne’s Red Lentil Soup

In Food Demo this week we made a soup recipe from Dawne, one of our volunteers. This is a great recipe to use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge, add leftover meat or chicken as well, or serve with rice. You can even whip up some cornbread while you are waiting for the soup to cook!

Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil

• 2 medium sized onions, diced

• 1 medium sized carrot, diced (optional)

• 1 stick celery, diced (optional)

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder OR 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 2 teaspoons coriander

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 2 teaspoons turmeric 

• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

• 1 and 3/4 cups red lentils

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt 

• 6 cups water OR vegetable stock

• 1- 28 ounce can tomatoes, crushed or diced

• 1-19 ounce can chickpeas, drained

Directions:

1. In a medium sized pot over low heat add a splash or two of oil, once warmed, add onions, celery and carrots (if using) and cook until softened, about 10 minutes.

2. Add garlic and the spices and cook for another minute or two, just until you can begin to smell them.

3. Increase heat to medium/high and stir in all other ingredients, bring to a boil then lower heat, cover soup and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or so until the lentils are cooked. Stir in leafy greens, if using, towards the end of cooking time until they become wilted and green.

4. Taste and adjust seasoning.

5. Serve as is, with rice and/or yogurt if you wish!

If you want to share any photos of your cooking or have any questions please feel free to get in touch with Melissa at mrankin@thenorthgrove.ca