Simple Foods: Sweet Potato, Red Lentil and Coconut Soup Recipe

After spending most of this winter snuggled up inside in front of the fireplace, book in one hand, hot chocolate in the other, we are two weeks into Spring now and ready to face the warmer season of the year.

And what a season it will be.

Some of you already know, but I've kept it pretty quiet overall - we are adding on to our family, god-willing,  this summer.

And where long and cold days beg for warming winter soups, they are also a fine way to help cope with those early miserable days and weeks of baby growing. So we ate them, lots of them. Taco soup, chicken noodle soup, roasted red pepper soup, butternut squash and carrot soup, you name it we had it.

So if you're a soup person like me, here's an easy recipe for you adapted from here:

Red Lentil, Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

2-3 medium sized sweet potatoes
2 red onions
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 fresh red chili
1/2 bunch fresh coriander (optional - our family is not a big Coriander fan)
125g red lentils
1 L vegetable stock, heated
1 can light coconut milk (400ml)
1 lemon

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2.Peel and dice sweet potato in 1 inch thick chunks, peel and cut onions into 1 inch thick wedges. (I had baked sweet potato left over from a previous dinner and used them instead of roasting fresh ones)
3. Place vegetables on a roasting tray in one layer, sprinkle with cumin seeds, coriander, salt and fresh pepper. Roast for 40 to 45 minutes - since I had already cooked sweet potatoes, I just peeled them and roasted the onion in a pan.
4. Peel and finely slice garlic, followed by finely slicing the chili. If using, pick coriander leaves and set aside, finely slice the stalks.
5. In a large saucepan, on medium-low, heat about a tablespoon or two of oil. Saute the garlic, chili, and coriander stalks until lightly golden.
6. Add the red lentils to the pan, stir to coat well. Stir in the heated vegetable stock and coconut milk.
7. Increase the heat and gently boil, reduce to a simmer and cook lentils for about 20 minutes.
8. Once the vegetables are ready, carefully add to the saucepan, together with most of the coriander leaves.

If you have a submersion blender, blend the soup to desired thickness. I recently minimized ours, thus I transferred most of the soup to the blender and (carefully!) blended until smooth. A few pieces were left un-blended for some chewiness.
Another option is to just mash your vegetables with a wood spoon as desired. It's your soup, prepare it the way you like it :)

9. Lastly, squeeze in some fresh lemon juice and season to taste.

Enjoy!

This soup is also on my list for nursing friendly soups. More on that topic very soon y'all!

Live Loved!



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