This is one of our favorites, and in the colder half of the year I’ll make this every other week. It’s easy. It’s nutritious. It can be vegan (if you skip the yogurt at the end, and the honey, depending on how your veganism takes form). But it’s also possible for it to be quite spicy-hot, so if that’s something you’re not great at dealing with, definitely skip the harissa.
- 3 Tsbp olive oil (for cooking, so not the darker green extra virgin stuff)
- 1 large red onion, diced
- garlic, for which I’m not going to tell you how much to use, because if you like it, you’re going to use as much as you want anyway. I use jars of chopped garlic because I am lazy, and I use about 2 Tbsp for this
- 1 1/2 C red lentils, rinsed in a colander to get the dust off
- 1 14oz can of diced tomatoes with their juice
- either:
- 1/2 to 1 tsp of Harissa if you like spice or
- 2 Tbsp cumin and 1 Tbsp coriander if you want a mild soup
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 Tbsp honey (which you can skip if you like)
- Greek yogurt
- Red wine vinegar
Sweat the onion over medium-low heat in the olive oil until the onion is translucent and soft.
Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute until the garlic gets fragrant.
Add the lentils and spices and kick up the heat a bit. Stir to coat the lentils in spices and oil. You’ll be moving quickly at this point so have the tomatoes and water handy.
Once you’ve got the lentils coated and the smell of the spices starts to hit your nose, dump in the tomatoes and 7 cups of water, and the honey and bay leaves. And 1 tsp of salt.
Bring to a boil, then drop to a simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes.
To serve: in each bowl drop a dollop of Greek yogurt, then ladle out the soup, then splash a little red wine vinegar on the top. Stir it all together before you eat it.
And then go back for seconds.