Curried lentil soup, rich with the heady scent of toasted cardamom, coriander and fenugreek, moves from the humble to the extraordinary. I don’t often cook curries, not that I dislike them: far from it, I love curry; it’s just that I find more easy inspiration in culinary herbs from the kitchen garden (many of which have medicinal uses) and for get the exotic spices that perfume dishes like this curried lentil soup. It’s an uplifting perfume but sexy and earthy, too, ginger and shallots cook in grass-fed ghee or clarified butter, an ingredient essential in classical Indian cuisine, that offers the dual value of being one of the most nutrient-dense fats to any home cook. It’s brimming with vitamin A, vitamin K2 and conjugated linoleic acid. You can make ghee at home or, if you’re like me, you’d just purchase it online from an artisanal producer (see sources).
Making a good lentil soup is a slow process, as any good soup should be and it first begins with soaking the pulses for ten to twelve hours in warm water into which whey, yogurt or another acid has been added. This traditional process that our great-great-grandmothers knew well is all but forgotten today. A shame, really, for soaking legumes first for this curried lentil soup or for other dishes requiring their use effects three primary goals: 1) it increases the digestibility of legumes by neutralizing enzyme inhibitors that make digesting the proteins found in legumes difficult; 2) it liberates the plentiful minerals bound up in legumes by degrading the antinutrient phytic acid, and 3) soaked legumes typically cook more quickly and more thoroughly than those that have not been soaked. Thus in one traditional practice, you’ve effectively increased the nutrients available to your body from legumes like lentils, peas and beans. It’s a simple tradition, as it should be, but powerful and beautiful too.
Curried lentil soup would be nothing but for its spices. Where a good stock is essential in preparing other soups (like miso soup with clams), the combination of ethereal spices is essential in this dish – which is, of course, not to say that a good stock plays no role in the success or failure of curried lentil soup (it does, and I recommend a fresh chicken broth or an Asian-inspired chicken foot stock for this soup), but, more aptly, it’s the toasted cardamom, cumin, fenugreek and coriander that truly elevate this humble pot of pureed lentils and split peas into something deservedly special.
As you toast the spices in a hot skillet, they begin to release their fragrance, but it’s upon crushing them that they blossom with perfume, erupting in clouds of fragrance: the maple-like scent of fenugreek, the sharp and green odor of cardamom all subdued by the earthiness of cumin and coriander. And as those clouds of perfume waft from your mortar, you can’t but help to become more involved in your cooking. No longer are you simply making a meal to feed your family; rather, you’re moved by the fragrance, by the celebration of flavor.
| curried lentil soup | Print |
- 1½ cups yellow split peas
- ½ cup red lentils
- 2 tsp yogurt, kefir, whey, lemon juice or vinegar
- 1 tsp coriander seed
- 1 tsp cumin seed
- 1 tsp fenugreek seed
- 6 cardamom pods
- 2 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
- 2 shallots, (peeled and sliced thin)
- ½ inch knob ginger, (peeled and finely minced)
- 1 tsp curry powder
- ¼ tsp powdered cayenne pepper
- 2 quarts homemade chicken stock
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 cup raisins
- 2 cups full-fat coconut milk
- yogurt, cilantro and fresh lime, (to serve)
- Pour yellow split peas and red lentils into a mixing bowl with two tablespoons yogurt, kefir, whey, lemon juice or vinegar and cover with hot water by two inches. Allow the lentils and split peas to soak for ten to twelve hours, then drain them and rinse them thoroughly.
- Heat a cast-iron skillet over a moderately high flame until hot, then toss in coriander, cumin, fenugreek and cardamom seeds, stirring constantly until well-toasted, about two minutes. Remove the toasted spices from the skillet and crush by hand with a mortar and pestle or grind in a spice grinder. Melt ghee in a heavy-bottomed stock pot over a moderate flame, then toss in shallots and ginger, frying until fragrant – about three to four minutes. Stir in toasted spices, curry powder and cayenne pepper, and continue cooking for another minute or two.
- Pour soaked, rinsed and drained lentils and split peas into the pot with chicken stock and fish sauce. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup until the lentils and split peas are cooked through, about forty-five minutes.
- Puree the soup with an immersion blender or run it through a foodmill, then stir in coconut milk and raisins and continue simmering about ten minutes.
- Serve with yogurt, cilantro and fresh lime.
Wait, I thought acid made the skins tough on beans?
Not in my experience; further, I think it’s deeply important that pulses be properly prepared through optimal soaking so that they’re easy to digest and can give your body their full array of minerals.
Hi Jenny…It’s Loooong after you posted this wonderful recipe & I finally made some Curried Lentil coconut soup last week. I soaked the yellow split peas over 24 hours in filtered water with 2 tablespoons of Braggs raw cider vinegar. (The red lentils, too, in a separate bowl) I cooked them in homemade chicken stock and after an hour, the split peas were STILL crunchy. After 2 hours, they were still crunchy! I ‘burr-mixed them anyway…and it wasn’t till the next day, after warming the leftovers that they finally broke down more! Perhaps you have some insight? My dry ingredients were fresh – from a co-op with high turnover. I read the first comment in this group…could that be true? (And you’re the lucky one to not have it happen to you? Please let me know…
Beans, lentils and such need to be brought to a rolling boil. They need to be boiled for 10 minutes at any point during the cooking process. I learned that the hard way, too, but came across that little step in print one day, and by golly, not only does it work every time, but my lentils or beans remained crunchy until I did this step. It may take less than 10 minutes, but you will definitely see that they’re breaking down.
(I had cooked a bean soup for 8 hours in my slow cooker, and the beans were still crunchy.)
Amazing soup…my son said it is one of the best he has ever had 🙂 Beverly’s tip about a rolling boil for ten minutes was a good one.
Yum! Even my bean/lentil/pea and broth hating son said it was “edible”. That’s a HUGE complement from him 😀
What color of cardamon pods did you use?
Good question. I went to buy some and saw they had green or black. Which ones have people used? I bought green and I have the lentils/peas soaking now. I’m looking forward to trying this since it sounds delicious.
I made this for dinner the other night and wasn’t sure I could could wait for it to be done before I started eating! The smell of the toasted seeds was truly awesome, you were so right. My family has requested that this one be on the regular rotation. Thank you for the inspiration to break out the fun spices again, it is appreciated.
I’m making this soup right now, in honor of fall, and the wonderful aromas are making me super happy. Thanks!
By the way, I had a hard time finding fenugreek, cardamom seeds and coriander seeds but finally found them in the herbs for healing section of Good Earth–the bulk section where they sell them in tiny plastic bags.
How many servings would you say that this makes? It’s always had to tell with legumes and such. They expand and make more than it sounds on the recipe.
Thanks!
Ooops. Now I just saw that it serves 6 to 8. Sounds great. I’d love to try it. I do wonder if using quality seasonsings (but already crushed) is ok. I realize that it won’t have that good roasted flavor, but I think I might give it a try…unless there would be cautions against this. I realize that I would omit the “roasting” step.
Jenny, I’d like to make this soup but I’m having trouble finding split yellow peas. I’ve been to every store locally including our health food store and I can’t find them. Will split green peas work as a substitution? Thank you!
We found yellow split peas in the bulk food section at Winco
Are you pureeing the raisins as well or leaving them whole?
Just FYI everyone — you can get all the spices listed here in Indian or Asian grocery stores. You might need to scope them out — the nearest one might be a bit of a drive, but when you find them it’s worth a trip to get stocked on your spices. Way, way cheaper than health food stores.
Hi, I made this soup tonight, filed the recipe to the letter, up to adding the coconut milk, but it is super runny! I decided to add half the called for amount of coconut cream to compensate, but it’s still really watery. Any ideas?
A new update, thanks for posting this recently. The dish was delicious, I followed the recipe to the letter, except maybe a TBS of Fish sauce, love the tones. It was a big hit. And can’t wait to make it again. I hope to stumble on it in the future. I have 5-6 standard meals, that I regularly repeat, I cook 5 days a week, all other meals are non-repeat findings on the web, in places like this. Thanks Jenny for you time in putting a great recipe together.
The Fish Sauce adds umami (sixth sense) to the soup, so next time you make it, try adding the fish sauce. You will be amazed that this delicious soup could be even better!
I think this one’s a keeper for me. I adjusted the recipe slightly according to my tastes (subbed cream for coconut milk since I’m not a fan of coconut, and paprika for cayenne pepper since I don’t like spicy). The soup had a really nice “sweet” curry flavor which I enjoyed. And I had never thought of putting raisins in a soup before. However, I will be halving the recipe next time for the usual 3-4 that eat at our house – I have tons of leftovers. Thanks for a great recipe that my taste buds enjoyed! (And my sensitive tummy liked it too!)
A question about ingredient clarification. Do you mean canned coconut milk found in the Asian food section of one’s grocery or the milk substitute coconut milk found in a carton in the dairy section? I have both and am leaning towards the canned since it stated “full fat”, and the first comments are from 2012 and I don’t think the dairy substitute was as widely available five years ago and I use the canned version when making Tum-Yum, Korean chicken soup. Hope I’m correct as my beans are soaking right now!
I do not recommend the coconut milk found in the carton in the dairy section.
I am looking forward to making this soup, when you say serves 6-8 what do you think it yields? 2 Quarts? Just trying to plan a few soup deliveries to friends. Thank you!