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Red Lentil & Caramelized Onion Soup
3 Reviews
From: EatingWell Magazine March/April 1995
Fresh lime juice balances out the creamy, mellow sweetness of this pureed lentil and carrot soup. Caramelized onions, crisp snow peas, cilantro and sliced hard-boiled eggs are a flavorful and beautiful topping. Serve with warm whole-wheat naan or roti bread.
- By: Bharti Kirchner EatingWell Recipe Contributor
Ingredients 4 servings
for serving adjustment
Serving size has been adjusted!
Original recipe yields 4 servings
Nutrition per serving may change if servings are adjusted.
- 3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 onions (1 chopped and 1 thinly sliced)
- 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- 2 cups chopped carrots (about 4 carrots)
- 2 cups red lentils
- 8 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2 hard-boiled eggs (see Tip), sliced
- 10 snow peas, blanched and cut into thin strips
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Preparation
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Active
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Ready In
- Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and jalapeno; cook, stirring often, until the onion starts to turn golden, about 5 minutes. Add carrots, lentils and water. Bring to a boil. Add turmeric, cover and simmer until the carrots and lentils are tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add sliced onion and cook, stirring often, until it turns medium brown, about 10 minutes.
- Transfer the lentil mixture to a food processor or blender and puree, in batches if necessary, until smooth. Add a little water if necessary. (Use caution when pureeing hot liquids.) Return the puree to the pot. Stir in lime juice and season with salt and pepper.
- Ladle the soup into bowls. Top each serving with sauteed onions, egg slices and snow peas and sprinkle with cilantro.
- Tip: To hard-boil eggs, place in a single layer in a saucepan; cover with water. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and cook at the barest simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, pour out hot water and cover with ice-cold water. Let stand until cool enough to handle before peeling.
- Per serving: 449 calories; 7 g fat(2 g sat); 25 g fiber; 70 g carbohydrates; 30 g protein; 541 mcg folate; 93 mg cholesterol; 11 g sugars; 0 g added sugars; 10985 IU vitamin A; 25 mg vitamin C; 120 mg calcium; 10 mg iron; 243 mg sodium; 1394 mg potassium
- Nutrition Bonus: Vitamin A (220% daily value), Folate (136% dv), Iron (57% dv), Potassium (40% dv), Vitamin C (38% dv), Magnesium (31% dv), Zinc (27% dv)
- Carbohydrate Servings: 4
- Exchanges: 2 starch, 1 vegetable, 1 fat
Reviews 3
March 09, 2013
By: EatingWell User
Tasty with some tweaking
Contrary to the other review posted here, I found this to be a light yet filling and flavorful soup with just some minor tweaking. I followed the recipe to the letter with the following two exceptions: adding half of a red bell pepper (chopped) in with the carrots and lentils just because I had it and wanted to use it somehow and NOT doing the snow pea and egg topping. That is the one thing I can agree with the other reviewer on: omit the toppings from the recipe entirely, they are a bad fit for this otherwise delicious soup. Other than that, the tweaks made were: added a smidge more tumeric than called for, probably added more salt than listed in the recipe (I salt to taste with soups these days), and I like my food spicier, so I added some (1 tsp.?) Spice Island Spicy Curry Powder (an inauthentic cop-out, I know) as well as some habanero hot sauce. Neither made this even remotely close to outrageously hot, but I do think it added some depth, especially with the Spicy Curry Powder. If one likes thicker, more-like-pea-soup soup, I would say maybe cook off a little more water or don't add the full 8 cups in at the beginning. While it was thinner than I might've been expecting, it was not a bad thing nor did it detract from the flavor.
Also, I don't know what kind of lentils the other reviewer was using, but if you are using red lentils, it definitely should not be brown... especially given the bright yellow tumeric. And yes, caramelizing onions rea
July 17, 2012
By: sylvia.and.wilbert
Why do recipe writers lie and lie and lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions?
It takes 30-40 minutes to brown onions:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/scocca/2012/05/how_to_cook_onions_why_recipe_writers_lie_and_lie_about_how_long_they_take_to_caramelize_.html
February 26, 2012
By: EatingWell User
Worst thing I ever ate
This was a waste of time and money. It had a very unappetizing, runny brown look. It tasted bland. The ingredients were so random and awful it was practically gag-inducing. Why in the world would you top this tasteless brown mess with hard boiled eggs, onions, and snap peas of all things? I thought it would all come together somehow but the recipe turned out far worse than I could have imagined.
I ended up literally flushing the entire pot down the toilet. Healthy soup doesn't have to be this disgusting.
Pros: Healthy
Cons: Looks terrible, tastes worse than it looks
