Lentil Soup with Tomatoes

Source

Adapted from Classic Middle Eastern by Soheila Kimberley

Taste 3 (out of 5)

Difficulty 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 45 ml/ 3 tablespoons of olive oil

- 1 large onion chopped

- 1 celery stick chopped

- 400 g/ 14 oz/ 2 1/2 cups red lentils (if use yellow or brown lentils cook longer)

- 1.2 liters/ 5 cups meat stock

- 4-5 tomatoes

- juice of 1 lemon

- 2.5 ml/ 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder (optional)

- salt and freshly ground black pepper

- celery leaf, to garnish

My changes: 2.5 cups of chicken broth and 2.5 cups of water instead of beef stock, paprika instead of clili powder.

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onion and celery, over a gentle heat, until soft. Add the lentils and stock to the pan, bring to the boil and then simmer for 25 minutes, or until the lentils soften.

2. Peel the tomatoes by dipping them into boiling water for 30 seconds to loosen the skins.

3. Roughly chop the tomatoes and ad the to the saucepan with the lemon juice, salt and pepper and the chili powder, if using. Simmer for a further 10 minutes and serve garnished with a celery leaf.

Afterthoughts

Pretty good soup. It turned out very sick, maybe one can add more water.