A quick, easy and tasty recipe for thick lentil soup. This works best using a hand blender or a food mixer, but you can puree it in the blender too. Serve with thickly sliced crusty bread for a filling and delicious meal.
Ingredients
- onion: 1 piece (chopped)
- olive oil: 1 Tbsp
- chili pepper: 1 piece (chopped)
- red lentils: 1 cup
- tomatoes: 1 can (14.5 ounce can, peeled and diced)
- water: 1 cup
- salt and pepper: (to taste)
- ground cumin: 0.5 tsp
- basil: 1 tsp (dried)
- sour cream: 0.25 cup (for topping, optional)
- sprigs fresh basil leaves: 2 piece (for garnish, optional)
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
-
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Lightly brown the onions in the oil. Add the tomatoes, chili pepper, lentils, cumin and basil to the pan along with the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.
-
When the lentils have softened, use a stick blender to puree the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. For a special touch, put sour cream in a squirt bottle, and squeeze a spiral onto the top of each bowl of soup, and garnish with a sprig of fresh basil.