Name: Lentil Cream Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Other
Ingredients: 250 g Red lentils; 1.2 l Vegetable stock; 150 g Onion; 150 g Carrot; 100 g Celery stalks; 3 cloves Garlic cloves; 5 g Ground cumin; 40 ml Extra-virgin olive oil; 25 ml Lemon juice; 1 leaves Bay leaves; 8 g Fine sea salt; 2 g Ground black pepper; 15 g Flat-leaf parsley

About this dish

Red lentils are the one pulse that needs no soaking and no patience: they collapse in twenty minutes into something thick enough to be called a cream soup without a drop of dairy. That is why versions of this exist from Anatolia to the Baltic — it is the cheapest hot meal a kitchen can make from a cupboard. The lemon at the end is not a garnish; lentils are earthy and slightly flat, and acid is what makes them taste of something.

Vegan
Gluten-free
Lactose-free

Ingredients

4servings

250gRed lentils
1.2lVegetable stock
150gOnion
150gCarrot
100gCelery stalks
3clovesGarlic cloves
5gGround cumin
40mlExtra-virgin olive oil
25mlLemon juice
1leafBay leaves
8gFine sea salt
2gGround black pepper
15gFlat-leaf parsley

Instructions

Warm the oil and cook the diced onion, carrot and celery over medium heat for 8 minutes, until soft and sweet.
8 min
Tip: Soft, not coloured. This soup has no stock roasted bones or browned meat behind it, so its whole base is these three vegetables cooked gently enough to stay sweet.
Stir in the garlic and cumin and let them cook for a minute in the hot oil.
2 min
Tip: A minute in fat is what turns ground cumin from dusty to fragrant. Added later, with the liquid, it never gets hot enough and stays raw-tasting to the end.
Add the lentils, stock and bay leaf, bring to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, until the lentils have completely collapsed.
20 min
Tip: Completely — not tender, collapsed. A blender will smooth anything, but lentils that still hold their shape leave a grainy soup no amount of blending fixes.
Fish out the bay leaf, blend until smooth, then season with the lemon juice, salt and pepper.
3 min
Tip: Lemon before salt, and taste between them. Acid makes a soup taste saltier than it is, and salting first almost always ends in too much.
Scatter with parsley and serve.
2 min
Tip: A drizzle of the oil on top is worth it if you have good oil: fat carries the cumin, and a blended soup has nowhere else to put it.