Curried Lentil Soup with Naan Bread

/
Curried Lentil Dahl with Cilantro

Curried Lentil Dahl with Cilantro

These are 2 of my favorite things to make in the kitchen. It's easy to make them vegan and the soup is gluten-free. When we have a ton of extra tomatoes from the garden in the summer... I make this soup. When it's super-chilly outside and we want to warm up in the winter... I make this soup too!

I often cook without recipes. (But I never bake without a recipe!) I'm really glad that I have this recipe on a tattered photocopy that speaks to the fact that we eat this so much.

Curried Lentil Soup (aka Dahl) recipe

Serves 4, soup takes less than 1 hour to make, and I don't know where I got the recipe!

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, or olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp chili powder
1 lb/900 g fresh or canned, chopped tomatoes
1 cup red lentils, washed (red lentils cook the fastest)
1 tbsp dried kombu seaweed flakes
2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 cups broth or water
1 1/4 cups canned coconut milk (or the whole can)
salt and pepper, to taste
chopped fresh cilantro and lemon slices, to garnish (optional)

Instructions

  1. Heat the butter or oil in a soup pot. Saute the onion for 5 minutes. Add the garlic for 1 minute. Add the spices and cook for 30 seconds. 
  2. Stir in the tomatoes, red lentils, lemon juice, broth/water, coconut milk and bring to boil. 
  3. Reduce the heat and simmer for 25-30 minutes until the lentils are tender and cooked.
  4. Season to taste and garnish.

Naan Bread recipe

Want to eat the dahl with yummy, homemade Naan bread using a pizza stone? I usually freeze what's leftover for quick dinners in the future. Start making the Naan bread at least 3 hours before you want to eat it and follow Real Life Dinner's "quick oven rising method" with detailed instructions and great pictures

Makes 12 Naan pieces and takes about 3 hours to make.

Here is my healthy variation on her ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm non-dairy milk (100°-110° F)
1/2 tsp or 1 package of yeast
1 tsp salt
3+ cups whole wheat flour (sometimes I mix in Rye and/or Buckwheat flours)
1 stick of butter for melting/wiping on cooked Naan (or use coconut oil)
garlic powder (optional)
salt

Here are my variations to her instructions after making it so many times:

*disclaimer, I'm at 5,000 feet altitude

  1. Add yeast to warm milk, let stand 5 minutes.
  2. Add salt and 3½ cups flour to milk mixture and mix in mixer with dough hook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle additional flour as needed to keep dough from sticking to the sides. Do not exceed 4 cups.
  3. Put it in a greased glass bowl, covered with a damp towel, in a warm oven. To get your oven the right temp turn it onto 190-200° and let it preheat while you make the dough. Turn it off and let dough sit in warm oven for 30 minutes until doubled-ish.
  4. Punch dough down and divide into 12 equal pieces.
  5. Form pieces into balls and let rest for 30 minutes (cover with damp dish towel used in the oven). Her pictures are great for this step.
  6. Put the pizza stone in oven and preheat oven to 500° F. (This can sometimes take awhile!)
  7. Roll out dough balls to 1/4" to 1/2" thickness (about the size of a small tortilla).
  8. Cook 3 rolled out dough "tortillas" on the stone for 4 minutes (or whatever fits).
  9. Use 2 dinner plates to stack cooked Naan on top of each other (1 on the bottom and 1 on the top to flatten them). Wipe each side of the Naan with a stick of butter (or coconut oil) and add salt and/or garlic powder.

Let me know what you think in the comments!