Nana Recipe Wednesday–Curried Bombay Lentil Soup

This is quite possibly, the funniest photograph of Nana in existence.  I absolutely adore it.  She is so darn cute.  Obviously Nana and Boppa are on one of their many trips around the world.  I hope that I can travel as much as they did some day.  So far I’ve only been to Canada, Mexico and France.  But I’ve got Ireland in my sights.

Those of you who live here in Sacramento know what crappy weather we’ve been having, but if you don’t…..Man oh man it’s been a wet, wet week.   I feel kind of stupid complaining about our wet weather after the horrible mess the coastline of Japan is in…..but I’m just a spoiled American and it’s just been too rainy.  Like, every day.  Storming!  There’s a lake in my back yard!

And like many times before, this crappy rainy wet stormy weather calls for a nice filling soup.

After a quick dip into Nana’s recipe box, I came up with this ‘Curried Bombay Lentil Soup’ recipe.  Hearty, filling, vegetarian and healthy.  Sounded like just the ticket.

Soups are so easy to make, especially lentil soup.  Lentils don’t really take long to cook and don’t require any pre-soaking.  What’s different about this soup (and kind of odd, in my opinion) is that you first cook the lentils in stock, then separately cook the onion, garlic and curry, stirring them in with the cooked lentils then simmering them together for about 20 minutes.  It doesn’t seem like it will work–I personally didn’t think the flavors would develop, but Nana proves me wrong yet again.

You can puree this with your immersion blender or just leave it.  I didn’t puree it because after cooking the lentils break down to a pleasant texture all on their own.

This soup will be going into the regular winter rotation.

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Nana’s Curried Bombay Lentil Soup

3/4 lb. lentils (Nana didn’t specify but I used red lentils)

4 qts. chicken or vegetable broth

1/4 lb. butter

1/4 lb onion, chopped (I used one whole onion)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 Tbsp curry powder

1 tsp turmeric

salt to taste

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Wash and drain the lentils.  In a Dutch oven, combine the lentils, broth and turmeric.  Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer over low hear for 2 hours or more–or until the lentils are tender.  (Nana says you can “Osterize” the mixture–or use your immersion blender–if you like a more pureed soup)

Melt the butter in a heavy skillet.  Saute the onions 5 minutes.  Add garlic, pepper, curry powder.  Saute a few minutes more, stirring frequently.  The onions should be well browned.

Add the curry and onion mixture to the lentils.  Simmer an additional 20 minutes.  Taste for seasoning and serve hot.

Freezes well.

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• Nana Recipe Wednesday–Zucchini Soup
• Soup Weather–Linguica and Kale Soup
• Nana Recipe Wednesday–Cream of Spinach Soup
• It’s Fall! Make Yellow Split Pea Soup

Tagged as: lentils, Soup, vegetarian