Masoordal Soup

New soup from 10/26/08

Adapted from Egyptian red lentil soup on recipezaar.com (recipe# 94673) which was adapted from a Moosewood recipe. It says 1 2/2 hour cooking time and 1 hour prep. But it can be prepped much faster after peeling potatoes yet it really needs to simmer for many hours, or sit for many hours to let the spices permeate the lentil mixture for a real flavor. Much better on day two.

5 cups water
1 c dried red lentils or masoordal
2 c chopped onions
2 cups chopped potatoes, peeled
8 cloves garlic, minced (try leaving whole next time)
1 T canola oil
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp salt
squeeze of lemon juice
salt & pepper

1. add first 5 ingerdients in large pot, cover & bring to a boil
2. lower heat and simmer 15-20 minutes until lentils and veggies are tender
3. remove pot from heat
4. in a small saucepan, add the oil; warm over low heat until oil is hot, but not smaoking.
5. add in the cumin, tumeric and salt; cook and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes or until cumin has released its fragrance (be careful not to scorch spices)
6. set spice mix aside for 1 minute to cool
7. stir spice mixture into the lentil mixture
8. puree the soup in batches, using an immersion blender
9. add lemon juice & stir
10. Put pot with all ingredients back on the heat to simmer (maybe 30 minutes, probably longer)
Serves 6

Upon making this the first time, It didn't have enough time for the spices to flavor the veg base and it tasted weak. I let the rest of the soup simmer for 1 1/2 hours and it became much more flavorful.