Winter Cooking: OUTRAGEOUS Red Lentil Soup

Inspired by an article on Egyptian food in this month’s Food & Wine magazine, and by the fortuitous discovery of a bag of red lentils in my pantry, I made this OUTRAGEOUS lentil soup in my slow cooker.  Forgive the all caps, but my house has smelled so wonderful all day.  I can hardly wait for my husband to get home so we can eat dinner!!!

Egyptian Red Lentil Soup (photo from Food & Wine magazine)

Mise en place:

• 1 lb dried red lentils (soak overnight in cold water, or use the hot soak method – boil for 2 minutes, then soak for an hour in the boiling liquid).
• 4-5 large carrots, coarsely chopped
• 4-5 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 t minced garlic (ugh!  my brand new jar of garlic was bad, so I had to toss it and resort to garlic powder….)
• 1 t smoked Spanish paprika
• 2 t chile powder
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1/2 t ground turmeric
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carton broth – vegetable, chicken or beef (I used Wegman’s beef broth, because that’s what I had on hand)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (I used Hunt’s Fire Roasted tomatoes; they complement the dish nicely!)

Optional:

• 2 T soup base
• 2 T Moroccan Harissa or hot sauce

Soffritto:  Saute the vegetables in olive oil until slightly tender; add the garlic and saute one minute more.  Drain the lentils; add to pot.  Add broth and seasonings.  Stir and bring to boil.  Transfer to slow cooker.

Cook:  In slow cooker, on high, for 3 hours.  Remove from heat; puree lightly with a stick blender.  At this point the soup tasted a bit bland to me, so I added the soup base and harissa.  Now, it’s OUTRAGEOUS!

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