Red Lentil Soup - Recipe

This recipe is a Dove favorite, not only for its flavor and simplicity, but also because it came from Claudia Roden, an Egyptian Jewish (now British) food writer born in Cairo. Her Sephardic family loved this soup, whereas I encountered it in Muslim Egyptian households as a Ramadan break fast specialty. Vegans in America love this soup made with vegetarian broth (or water). It's a true Middle East peace recipe.

1 large onion, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups (350 g) split red lentils
7 1/2 cups (1 3/4 liters) meat or chicken stock or water*
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil to drizzle, to taste.

In a saucepan put the onion, lentils, liquid, a little salt and pepper, and simmer 1/2 hour, or until the lentils have disintegrated. Add water if soup needs thinning. Stir in cumin and lemon juice and adjust seasoning (Leila's note - this really needs salt and lemon in generous quantity). Let people help themselves to a trickle of olive oil.

*Update, three years later. If you aren't using chicken stock, you should really, really put in a cube or two of Knorr bouillon cubes. Vegans and vegetarians will appreciate the vegetarian bouillon cubes. I made this vegan over the weekend and it's just not much fun without the Knorr cubes although you could make it so with plenty of salt and lemon.

I must get twenty referrals a day to this blog from people looking for red lentils, red lentil soup, and so forth.

Serves 6

Claudia lists a half dozen variations, including that of the Baghdadi Jews of India: add 1 teaspoon turmeric, and 2 dried chopped chilies or a good pinch of cayenne pepper. Read The Book of Jewish Food for more information.

In Egypt at Estoril Restaurant or the Automobile Club of Cairo, this soup was served with lime wedges and chopped fresh cilantro. Toasted pita triangles make a nice accompaniment.

Comments

[Edda Emery]

I've had this wonderful red lentil soup at a local Egyptian restaurant a few times and loved it so much I just HAD to find a recipe to share with my family. Last night I made your soup, Claudia, hoping it would be close to what I'd tasted before. It was magnificent! I love the simplicity of the recipes that still burst with flavour. Thank you!

[Kathy]

We sometimes use Moroccan spices or curry with this basic recipe. It is goof-proof, great easy, and fast.

[Lana]

This soup is fabulous! Thank you for posting it on your interesting blog.

[Leila]

Three years later - my best friend called her mother long distance looking for the recipe for this soup, not knowing that Dove's Eye View hosts Google's most popular red lentil soup recipe. Seriously. Just plug in the three words into Google and see who comes up first.

Just sayin'

[Marcella Levie]

Dear Leila,
Thanks so much for honouring Claudia Roden and her great recipes. I was looking to make this soup for my Maroccan jewish daughter in law. As I am visiting my kids and far away from home, I am so happy to have found your blog. This is totally the kind of food I like to prepare,appealing to our strong Middle eastern roots.
Thanks a million !
Marcella

[Lisa Tang]

This is delicious and unbelievably simple to make. I used butter to start on the onions and added a dash of curry powder as well. YUM!

[Miz Liz]

What a simple recipe! And what an amazing soup! This is a keeper and thank you !!!!!

[A. Martin]

I had bought some red lentils at the health food store hoping to use them in some recipe. I had heard ot red lentil soup and decided to look online. This one came up first so I thought I would try it. At the end of cooking it, I did a taste test and was so shocked at the fabulous results I couldn't wait to serve it for dinner. My children all agreed it was fabulous. It's by far the easiest and tastiest soup I've ever made.

[shoshana]

hi
i need to make a shabbat afternoon meal that i can serve at room temperature or cold or keep in a slow cooker overnight on super low
would this soup work?
(my guests keep shabbat)
hope you can get back to me before thursday's cook-fest

[Kerry McGann]

I had just made some chicken stock today for the 1st time and the snow is coming down outside. It was too cold to go to shops so thought I would look up internet with something I had in cupboard - yup.. red lentils!

I am so happy I found your recipe. It is so simple and delicious. I did not have the lemon juice and it still tasted fantastic. I had to have a second bowl. I will try it with the lemon next time!

I will be sure to pass this on.

Thanks again
Kerry

[Linda]

The simplicity of this soup is amazing because it is so delicious and hard to stop eating. My family"s favorite.

[Esther]

Please forgive me; I don't mean to be rude, but need to know. I made this recipe and it is delicious. After two heaping bowlfuls, I became aware of little white worm-like things in the soup. please tell me this is normal. I'm nervous that my red lentils are infested by worms.

Forgive my ignorance; I would very much receive a response because this soup is delicious, and I want to eat it.

[Eleanor]

Thanks for sharing this simple delicious recipe - it's heavenly!...and to find it's from my all-time favourite food writer, Claudia Roden doesn't suprise me - she's the greatest!
Great comfort food for a cold day in Scotland.

[Vero]

Hey, this was a great recipe, I just finished making it about 10 minutes ago. I added about a teaspoon of chili pepper flakes to mine, turned the tsp of cumin to about 1 1/2 tsps. I also added about 1/2 tsp of dry ground ginger and about 2 lemons worth of lemon juice instead of 1.

[Jewish Recipes]

I made your red lentil soup today with a couple of modifications and it was delicious.

I added 2 sticks of cut-up celery and carrots, and instead of the cumin (just because didn't have it in the house) added turmeric.

My neighbor is 82 and her husband is 90 years young. She's offers dinner or lunch to me at least once a week because she know that I really don't like to cook ofter. So today I called and asked, "How would you like to try a new kind of soup for lunch?"

When she took the two bowls 2 bowls of soup I asked her to give me honest feedback. She has never held back before in giving her opinion so I knew that she would tell the truth.

After Elaine and Richard ate their bowls of soup for lunch she called and said, "When you make it again we are each in for another bowl!"

Madeline Binder
Author of From Bubbie's Kitchen

[Brian Ridderbusch]

This is a excellent recipie, exactly what I was looking for; tasty and simple. THank you for sharing this with us.

[jabreu]

We love this soup so healthy and easy to make It is also great over rice as an alternative to the cuban "chicharos" A dish eaten often in miami but full of pork parts.

[t.biggers]

I'm trying this today! ;) I did a google search for Red Lentil soup and this site was in the top 5. Must be good.

[Marsha]

Have made red lentil soup many times, but not recently. Instead of going to my cookbook shelf I searched online. Funny how that has become so much more convenient. This recipe is fantastic and so simple! It was also fun to connect with you red lentil fans. :-) Thanks everyone!

[molly]

I've made many bean and pea soups and sometimes the small white "worm" things are there, it really means the seed was in the very first stages of sprouting, inside the seed. Not to worry, but use fresher lentils if you think it's icky

[Charlene]

Thank you so much for sharing your Red Lentil soup recipe. It was so simple yet so satisfying and tastey. I made it just the way you said. My husband and I loved it. Keep the hope from an American-German married to a Italian-American.

[tamara khamis]

i will try make it.thanx

[Silvana]

Simply wonderful!!! The soup is so easy to prepare and so delicious:) The marvelous taste is accompanied with such a tempting smell:) Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!

[Quag7]

Been cooking this for years now, and I'm cooking up a batch now.

I've passed this recipe on to several people. What continues to really impress me about this recipe is its simplicity. Not only is this healthy, but it's also really cheap to make.

I didn't expect to be impressed due to the short ingredient list, but I always look forward to this, taste-wise. It is guilt-free on so many levels:

(1) Cheap
(2) Simple to make, very little time investment. Just get the ingredients into the pot and go about your day.
(3) Vegan
(4) Healthy - lots of fiber

Everyone should try this, even if they're not much of a cook. It's hard to mess up.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

Wow, people are still commenting on this 4.5 year old post! I am so happy. For some reason my spam catcher isn't forwarding the messages so I had no idea.

Bon appetit everybody! This is the first thing I made for myself after arriving home (to California) from Beirut this week. So comforting.

[Catherine]

How would I make this soup without Cumin? I am not a big fan of it. I like curry dishes. Would curry work?

Thanks.

[WORM HATER]

1/25/09 - HELP!!! Will someone that is knowledgeable PLEASE tell me if those gross "white crecent shaped" rice size worms are INDEED WORMS??? Some say yes, some say not -I am informed that dried beans (any kind) DO NOT SROUT on the shelf!! They have to be planted. I am in a grossed out state of mind!!!! Cooked lentils for 15 years, and NEVER saw this unpalatable "white critter" in any bean I ever cooked. Can some please let me know??? I have dumped 4 crockpots full of lentils, Great Nothern White, Navy and Pinto beans because this critter showed up!!! I need a "clean" bean for vegetable protein!!!! Please respond and thanks.!!

[The Antiques Diva]

What an amazing recipe!! I added Nomu Moroccan Rub for an extra bite. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

[Sharon]

Still commenting 5 years later :) Thanks for posting this, the soup is fantastic. I was looking for a red lentil soup to make during a snowstorm today, since I didn't have the ingredients for my usual.

My only change was that I sauteed the onion in a teaspoon of olive oil first, and added a few carrot slices into that saute (I had them around, they're healthy, why not). Thanks for advice to be generous with the lemon juice and salt.

[Zippy]

this soup was great! Love it! great Egyptian flavours and the scent was extraordinary!

[Aileen Stockton]

I am making this soup for the first time. I have to make it rather thick as my husband has been advised to not have much liquid with meals.
I will post my opinion later!

[Nicole]

Hi, I found this thread because I looked up "little white things in lentil soup"...it happened to me too. Glad to hear its nothing to be concerned about! The soup is delish!