Tandoori Red Lentil Soup

Nothing heats you more up than a steaming hot cup of soup on cold winter days. Especially this rich and silky red lentil soup. The vibrant red-orange color already lights up your day. The special ingredient in this soup is the home made tandoori paste. It adds an incredible flavor to the soup. The lentils and the tomatoes give it texture, and the coconut milk is a perfect combination with the spiciness of the chillis.

Spiced Red Lentil Soup

(From: Britishlarder.uk)

80 g home made tandoori paste

50 g tomato puree

50 g sunflower oil

400 g tinned diced tomatoes

250 g coconut milk

150 g dried red lentils

200 g carrots, peeled and 10mm diced

200 g celery, 10mm diced

200 g banana shallots 10mm diced

1 large red chilli de-seeded and sliced

salt and pepper

600m l vegetable or white chicken stock

1. Heat a large saucepan with the oil to a medium temperature.

2. Sauté the diced carrots, shallots and celery with a little bit of seasoning. Always remember to season, especially soups,a bit at a time, as during the cooking and reduction processes the flavours becomes stronger and it’s easy to over season. Cook until the vegetables become transparent but not coloured.

3. Add the sliced red chilli, tandoori paste and tomato puree, cook for 3 minutes, add the dried red lentils and stir.

4. Add the tinned diced tomatoes and the stock, bring the soup to the boil, turn the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid.

5. Simmer the soup for 40 minutes over low heat.

6. Add the coconut milk, turn the heat to high, bring the soup back to the boil and cook for 10 minutes.

7. Use a ladle and scoop a third of the hot soup in to a food processor or a thermomix and puree until smooth, add this back to the soup and stir. By blending only a third of the soup, this will ensure that your soup has a silky thick and creamy texture with some whole bits of carrots and lentils.

8. Serve the soup garnished with extra virgin olive oil, cooked red lentils mixed with sliced spring onions and fresh basil.

 Home Made Tandoori Paste

80g fresh coriander

100g fresh ginger, peeled

2 lemons, zest grated and juiced

50g cumin seeds

50g mild paprika

4 fresh large red chillies, de-seeded

5 cloves of garlic, peeled

250g tomato puree

2 tsp salt

1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

 Wash the coriander, peel the ginger and garlic. Gently toast the cumin seeds in a hot pan, cool the toased cumin seeds before using.

 Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until a smooth paste.

 If you are not using the paste immediately spoon the paste in a clean ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen remove the ice cubes and place them in a freezer bag until needed.

 As this paste is a strong concentrate you do not need a lot of it. If you want to marinade chicken, meat or fish mix equal quantities of the paste with natural yoghurt, mix well and spread submerge the protein in the marinade, leave for a minimum of 6 hours before use. I normally let the protein marinade over night to ensure penetration.

 Makes a large quantity more than required for the soup, freeze the rest.

 This Tandoori Paste recipe is über cool, natural and versatile. I normally make a large batch of the paste and freeze it in ice cube trays, once frozen pop the cubes out in to a freezer bag and use them as required. This way the fresh spices and herbs remain super pungent and you always have a magical natural ingredient to hand. This recipe is strong and you require only a small amount to give extra flavour and depth to your cooking. When you wish to use the paste defrost the frozen cubes and either mix the Tandoori paste with equal quantities of natural yoghurt to home made tandoori paste and use it as a marinade for fish or meat. The use and versatility is endless, stir a couple of cubes in to a home made curry or soup for extra depth of flavour or mix a bit in to couscous for an exciting and tasty salad.