Red Lentil, Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

This is an Indian influenced soup and it is vegetarian, which is also true of a number of Indian dishes.

 

I love chili peppers, so I almost always leave the seeds in, but if you are not especially fond of chili pepper heat, instead of using 2 small chilies (1 to 1 1/2 inches long), you can substitute one small jalapeno chili, seeded, then chopped.

 

Ingredients (6 to 8 servings):

 

1 1/2 cups red lentils

3 tablespoons sunflower oil or corn oil or vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

5 cloves garlic, minced

3 inch piece peeled ginger, grated

2 small red or green chilies, chopped (or one medium jalapeno, seeded and chopped)

1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped sweet potato

1 cup peeled chopped carrot

6 cups vegetable broth

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cinnamon stick (2 to 3 inches)

1 teaspoon ground red pepper (like cayenne) 

1 teaspoon salt

1 can coconut milk (14 to 15 ounces)

1/4 cup cilantro (also known as fresh coriander), chopped

In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat the oil over medium heat and then add the onion; cook while stirring the onion around, until it softens, then add the minced garlic, grated ginger and chopped chilies; cook for just one minute, stirring everything around during that time. Add the sweet potato and carrot, then add the vegetable broth, stir to mix everything around. Let the broth come to a boil, then immediately adjust the heat to maintain a steady low simmer, stirring occasionally. After ten minutes, add the spices (ground cumin, ground coriander, ground turmeric, ground black pepper, cinnamon stick, ground red pepper and salt, stir well to mix. Keep simmering the soup until both the carrot and sweet potato are tend (but not mushy). Now add the lentils, stir well and bring the soup back up to a low steady simmer. Check the lentils after about 3 minutes (red lentils cook pretty fast), if they are tender, add the coconut milk, stir well again and let the soup come back to a bare simmer, then turn off the heat and stir in the chopped coriander (cilantro). 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Pare-This word is closely related to "prepare," a word derived from the noun "preparation," a Latin-based word borrowed from French, but with Latin influence, to "parent," another word of Latin derivation borrowed from French, but with Latin influence, to "parade," another Latin-based word borrowed from French, and to "parasol," another borrowing from French, which had it from Italian, which had it from Latin. "Pare" goes back to Indo European "pere," which had the notion of "to bring forth, to produce, to bring or move to the front," with slightly altered forms that differentiated meanings like "to give birth, to spawn, to beget," and "to arrange, to make ready," and more. The Indo European form gave Latin the verb "parare" meaning "to make ready;" thus, "to prepare, to make available, to put into order;" thus, "to arrange, to get, to purchase;" so, a whole series of meanings. This gave Old French "parer" meaning "to arrange, to prepare;" thus also, "to trim, to decorate;" thus also, "to dress lavishly" (from the idea of "prepare oneself for an occasion"). English borrowed the word in the early 1300s as the verb "paren" meaning "to trim off the peel/skin/crust of foods (often fruits and vegetables, but also bread and certain meats). The early 1500s saw the idea of cutting away part of something giving the verb the further meaning "to make something less in size, often incrementally." When English shifted to a different way of conjugating verbs, "paren" became "(to) pare." The 1400s saw a noun developed from the verb as "parer" (the stem par + er) meaning "tool used to pare fruits and vegetables," and this then became "paring knife." While the term "paring knife" is still around, I don't hear it all that often in American English anymore (I don't know about in Britain or other English speaking areas), but from the time I was a kid and into young adulthood, just about any small knife in a kitchen was called a "paring knife," and the term was heard very often.