Crazy Cheap & Easy Dinner Recipe #2 by Amy–Indian Lentil Soup

January 20th, 2010 in crazy cheap and easy dinner week, recipes

Hello to those of you visiting from my spot on Studio 5! If you are looking for the 5 Tips I shared on the show for Attracting Readers to Your Blog or a link to my coaching program on how to make money with your blog, please go here http://inevergrewup.com/5-tips/ Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

Amy from ProgressivePioneer.com is second “chef” this week showing off her favorite go-to meal for a “Crazy Cheap & Easy Family Dinner.” Stayed tuned all week long to see all of our guest’s recipes. To display the button on your own blog, click here. Amy is a stay-at-home mom in Salt Lake City, Utah. She grew up in Midcoast Maine and is a country girl at heart. She writes on her blog about urban homesteading, natural family living, being an LDS mom, bee keeping, attachment parenting, raw and whole food cooking, yoga practicing, urban chicken “farming,” unschooling and so much more.

Indian Lentil Soup

One of our very favorite soups is an Indian lentil soup. The curry and other spices makes it kind of exotic and the short, simple ingredient list makes it inexpensive and easy to throw together out of things you can stock in your pantry.

1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 coriander seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 TBSP olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
5 cups stock (we use Better than Bouillon chicken)
10oz red lentils
1 can chopped tomatoes

Crush up the seeds in a mortar and pestle. Heat them in a dry frying pan for a minute (honestly, you can skip this step too; it just intensifies the flavors). Then saute the onions and garlic in the oil and add in the spice mixture. Put in the broth and lentils and cook until the lentils are tender (about 20 min). Add the tomatoes and let it cook another five minutes. Now *carefully* whiz it all up in a blender until almost smooth (a little texture is nice) and pour it back in the pot. You may need to do this in a couple batches.

It’s easy to double or triple this recipe and store a few meals worth in the freezer. It’s perfect thawed and heated and tastes just as delicious as the day you made it.
If you don’t have the spices in your cupboard already, that will be your big investment. Otherwise, things like canned tomatoes, onions and lentils are cheap and easy to keep on hand. For garnish you can fry up some green onion slices and mix fresh parsley into some plain yogurt. I love the yogurt mixture on top!

We like to serve something fresh and colorful with the soup. This was a salad composed entirely from our garden, so it’s definitely cheap! But a nice side of curried peas and potatoes, an interesting fruit salad or even a simple green salad with a bright flavored dressing would be great.

Another delicious and inexpensive accompaniment is homemade, whole wheat naan. Peter Reinhart has a wonderful recipe that comes out fluffy and chewy. But some nice whole wheat toast to dip in the soup would also be tasty and satisfying.