Smoked Paprika Lentil Soup
Red lentils, which need no soaking and collapse into the soup on their own. Forty minutes, mostly unattended.
Red lentils are the ones that fall apart, and here that is the point: they thicken the soup themselves and there is nothing to blend.
The paprika goes in with the vegetables rather than the liquid. Thirty seconds in the fat is what makes it taste smoked rather than dusty.
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 1 cup | red lentils, rinsed |
| 1 | onion, diced |
| 2 | carrots, diced |
| 3 | garlic cloves, sliced |
| 2 tsp | smoked paprika |
| 1 can | chopped tomatoes |
| 5 cups | stock |
| 2 tbsp | olive oil |
| 1 | lemon, to finish |
Method
- Soften the onion and carrot in the oil over medium heat, eight to ten minutes. Do not brown them.
- Garlic and paprika in, and stir hard for thirty seconds. It will smell like the finished soup almost immediately.
- Tomatoes in, cook two minutes.
- Lentils and stock. Bring to a boil, then down to a simmer, lid ajar.
- Thirty minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing catches on the base. It is done when the lentils have disappeared.
- Salt now, not before, and a good squeeze of lemon. Both matter more than they sound.
Notes
- Salting lentils early keeps them firm. Salt at the end.
- It thickens a lot overnight. Loosen with water, not stock.
- It freezes perfectly, which is the reason to make the full amount.
Questions
Green or brown lentils?
They hold their shape, so you get lentil soup rather than this. Add fifteen minutes.
Is the lemon really necessary?
Yes. Without acid at the end it tastes flat and you will not be able to say why.