Red lentil soup with spiced oil

This is one of my favorite things to do with lentils, and a great emergency soup. It's very pantry friendly, and if you don't have fresh ginger I have made it with 1 teaspoon of ginger powder instead and it was still tasty.

And today might just count as an emergency. It's almost the Ides of April and there's a stupid blizzard outside. What the hey?  

I like to have this soup in the freezer to pull out for emergencies, but since a freezer decided to go permanently offline and took what was left of my soups from last fall with it (and what was left of the farmers market meat, alas), I was starting from scratch on the soup supply this morning. Rats.

Red lentil soup with spiced oil

Adapted from Gourmet, March 1991.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 onions, chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

4 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or ginger paste

½ teaspoon ground cumin, plus ¼ teaspoon for topping oil

½ teaspoon ground coriander

1 cup red lentils

1 cup chopped canned tomatoes

3 cups chicken broth

1½ cups water (if using tomato liquid, reduce water by a corresponding amount)

1½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

¼ teaspoon turmeric

Method

In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add onions and cook until softened. Add garlic and ginger and cook for a minute. Add ½ teaspoon cumin and coriander and cook for a minute until spices release their fragrance. Add lentils, tomatoes, broth and water. Bring to a simmer and cook until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes or so.

Let cool slightly and puree in a blender, or use a stick blender in the pan. Rewarm soup in saucepan.

Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a small pan. Add red pepper flakes, turmeric and remaining ¼ teaspoon ground cumin and cook until fragrant. Serve soup drizzled with flavored oil. 

Makes about 6 cups, and like many such soups, gets even better when prepared in advance and reheated so the flavors have time to really sink in. After having our first servings, I just add all of the oil to the remaining soup to swirl it in and it works fine. Don’t be tempted to skip the oil; that’s what takes this from a good soup to a really good soup.

Rating: Total keeper. Nice ginger and cumin flavors, and just a nice amount of heat that doesn’t overwhelm the other flavors. I've been making this for decades and I'm still not tired of it. I am tired of winter, however.