A couple of years ago I was walking through beautiful Hyde Park in Perth and came across a book sale. I picked up a book titled ‘super natural everyday’ by Heidi Swanson. I gave the pages a flick and thought I have never heard of Heidi but yep this looks like my kind of food so I bought the book. Since then I have become a big fan of @heidijswanson and her fabulous natural recipes. This Green Lentil Soup with the flavours of curry and coconut milk is deeeelicious and now one of my favourites. I had trouble trying not to eat while photographing! Good luck keeping it to the next day when the flavours really develop and it tastes even better.
40ml extra virgin olive oil
1 large brown onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon chilli flakes
1.2 litres vegetable stock or water
300g tiny blue-green lentils or green split pes, picked over and rinsed (I use green split peas)
40ml extra virgin olive oil (or 60g butter) extra
1 tablespoon Indian curry powder
125ml coconut milk
Sea salt and ground pepper to taste
1 bunch fresh chives, finely chopped
Combine the olive oil, onion, garlic and chilli flakes in a large stockpot over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onions soften, a couple of minutes. Add the vegetable stock and lentils and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender. This usually takes 20-30 minutes, but can take as long as 50 minutes.
In the meantime, warm the extra olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. When it is warm, stir in the curry powder and saute until fragrant, less than a minute.
When the lentils have finished cooking, remove from the heat, stir in the coconut milk and ¼ teaspoon salt, and puree with a stick blender. You can leave the soup a bit chunky if you like. Stir in half of the spiced olive oil, taste, and add more salt, if needed, typically a couple of teaspoons if you used water instead of a salted stock. Serve drizzled with the remaining spice olive oil and sprinkle with chives.
