Friday, October 9, 2009

Lentil Soup with a Few Shortcuts and Spicy Yogurt Sauce

Wednesday’s dinner was lentil soup. Since I knew that I didn’t have much time to cook dinner, I decided to use precooked lentils from Trader Joe’s. I prefer to cook my own lentils, but when I’m short on time these precooked lentils work well.


Ingredients

  • 2 medium sized onions, chopped
  • 4 cloves of garlic (not visible in the picture – my assistant, the toddler, decided to play with them…), chopped
  • 4 sweet potatoes
  • 8 small carrots
  • 1 package of steamed lentils
  • pepper
  • salt (if desired – the lentils already contain salt)
  • 4 cups of liquid (I used 2 cups of Organic low sodium vegetable stock and 2 cups of water; the soup was quite thick, just the way I like it… You could easily use 6 or even 8 cups of liquid if you like your soup soupy…)
Lentil Soup 01


I started by sautéing the onions and then added the garlic, sweet potatoes, and carrots and sautéed everything for a few minutes. Then I added the lentils and sautéed everything for a few more minutes.


Lentil Soup 02


Next I added the liquid, reduced the heat to medium and cooked everything for about 20 minutes, until the vegetables were soft.

In the meantime I made a spicy yogurt sauce out of the following ingredients:

  • Greek yogurt
  • 1-2 tablespoons Aioli Garlic Mustard Sauce
  • Basil
  • Tabasco sauce (not pictured since my assistant is obsessed with the bottle, and I had to hide it from him)

Lentil Soup 03


The fresh basil added such a nice touch! We have been harvesting basil from the same indoor basil plant since late May! It’s the best basil plant ever… I am so thankful for this basil plant since I was so unlucky with my outdoor basil this year...


Lentil Soup 04


Here is the finished sauce.


Lentil Soup 05


Here is the finished soup; it was quite chunky, just the way I like it...


Lentil Soup 06


And here is the soup topped with the yogurt sauce. I ended up mixing the sauce right into the soup. The yogurt sauce added a nice tanginess and spiciness to the soup.


Lentil Soup 07


Questions: Do you like lentils? What is your favorite way to eat them?


Be well,

Andrea