Curried Moroccan Lentil Soup

Hey Everyone. It's Rebecca.

One of my favorite types of soup is spicy Moroccan Lentil Soup. Au Bon Pain makes a great one that is lunchtime staple in my life. So I decided to start looking for a similar recipe. I ended up finding a nice looking one on a professional food blog called the "Happy Herbivore". In case you can't tell from the name, this dish is actually vegan, so it's full of veggies and obviously lentils, and packed with great flavors!

Like all good soups, it starts by dicing up celery, carrots, onions and garlic.

Heat about a table spoon of oil in a pot and sautee the onions and garlic, till they are just starting to get tender.

Add a thin layer of water to the pot and bring to boil.

Add the rest of the veggies and cook until veggies have softened and most of the water is absorbed.

Add in the vegetable broth.

Add in lentils. And a can of tomatoes (I actually forgot to add in the tomatoes, and it still tasted good but I do think they would be a great addition for next time!).

Create your spice mix by combining, Garam Marsala, Ginger, Paprika, Cumin, Cinnamon and Curry powder. I personally am not a huge ginger fan, so I used slightly less ginger than the recipe called for an added a bit of extra curry powder and some cardamom.

Cook for about 15 minutes or till the lentils are cooked.

Use a blender to puree about half of the soup. Stir it back into the pot.

Serve with pita, naan or other bread.

Recipe: 
- 1 small onion, diced
- 4 whole garlic cloves, minced
- 3 1/2  cups vegetable broth
- 2/3 cup red lentils
- 14 ounces diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup baby carrots, sliced
- 1/2 cup celery stalks, sliced
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mild curry powder


Heat oil in a pot. Over hight heat, saute onions, and garlic. Add a thin lay of water and the remaining veggies. Cook until water has absorbed. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Continue to cook for about 15 minutes, or until lentils are cooked through.  Transfer 1/2 of soup to blender (or use an immersion blender) and puree until smooth. Return to pot and mix with rest of the soup. Allow flavors to come together for a few more minutes and serve!