Recipe of the Week: Curried Red Lentil Soup

I recently discovered that my local grocery store makes the best red lentil soup, but it's quite expensive.  I just love a hearty soup for lunch so I searched on-line to try and find one that I can make and freeze for weekday lunches.  This soup is inspired by the Indian side dish dal; the Hindi word means split and refers to the split peas or lentils used in it's preparation.

Enjoy!
Stacy

Curried Red Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil

1 large onion, shopped

2 gloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 cups red lentils, rinsed

8 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

3 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoon mango chutney

salt & pepper ground pepper, to taste

1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

Preparation:

Heat oil in heavy stock-pan over medium heat.  Add onion and saute until softened, 3-5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, jalapeno, curry powder, cinnamon, cumin and bay leaves and cook, stirring for about 5 minutes.

Stir in lentils and broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered until the lentils are tender, about 45 minutes.

Discard the bay leaves.  Stir in cilantro, lemon juice and chutney.  Season with salt and pepper.  Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with yogurt.