a soup among friends

Sometimes, there is a recipe that gets passed around between friends because it’s easy and delicious.

This is one of those recipes.

My friend Lorelle in Winnipeg gave it to me, and now I’m cooking it in Victoria. Lorelle says her friend gave it to her from a cookbook. (A friendly cookbook, I like to think.*) 

Now, I’d like to pass this along to you, with a couple of changes.

I whipped it up for dinner last night in 45 minutes flat. (I use speed terms like “whip” and “flat” whenever I can make dinner in less than an hour.)

It is full of different veggies, but the lentils and coconut milk bring it all together into one unified soup. My favourite part is the little bursts of green pea.

We ate ours with cheese toast, but don’t be afraid to heat it up all by itself for your lunch tomorrow. It worked for me.

You could also try this with a bit of raita swirled in. Besides being delicious, the cucumbery-yogourt could help calm the soup down if you put in too much curry paste.

Soup’s up!

*  Lorelle says the cookbook is called Good Food Fast, edited by Pamela Clark. I'll be checking it out soon. 

A note: I know my amount of curry paste is vague. This, I almost learned the hard way, is because curry pastes differ in intensity and spice. I used about 1 tbsp. of Thai Kitchen’s red curry paste and it was certainly piquant. However, Lorelle uses 3 tbsp. of her local brand of mild curry paste, which is not Thai. Plop in a glob in the beginning, and add more later if you need to.

red lentil coconut curry soup

makes 4-5 bowls

Glob of curry paste

2 tbsp. butter

4 – 5 c. vegetable or chicken stock

14 oz. (400 ml.) can crushed tomatoes

2 large carrots, chopped finely

2 celery sticks, chopped finely

1 sweet potato, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

1 medium yellow-fleshed potato, chopped

3/4 c. red lentils

1/2 c. frozen peas

2/3 c. coconut milk

3 tbsp cilantro, coarsely chopped

Prepare your vegetables and set aside.

Heat a big soup pot over medium-low heat. Melt the butter and plop in the curry paste. Cook for one minute or until it’s fragrant.

Add stock, tomatoes, carrots, celery, sweet potato and zucchini. Simmer covered for 5 minutes.

Add potato and lentils to the soup and bring it back to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lentils are tender.

Add peas and return to a boil. Simmer until peas are just tender.

Remove soup from heat and stir in coconut milk and cilantro.

Share with your friends.