Moroccan Lentil Soup – warm and cozy way to enjoy your fall.
I am sure you all are hell bored with my Durga Puja posts and recipes. I promise there will be no traditional Indian recipes until Diwali.
It’s already the end of October, where is time passing? Another Big Bang Theory and Bob’s Burger seasons have arrived. Last two weekend was too much busy for us, so we decided to take a short break this weekend. I cooked a lot, baked a cake (recipe coming soon), watched movies, read Laksmi’s pure vegetarian (review coming soon) and drank hot and spicy apple cider. Husband made a storage shelf in one of our new storage units for my props.
Fall is all about warm soup, cozy blanket, and a nice book or movie. I prepare different types of soups the entire fall. But this weekend I decided to try a signature and one of my favorite store-bought soup. This is how it started.
When I was at Buffalo, I used to shop at Wegmans every week. I loved their extensive selections of soups and ready to go food. Boston had a Wegmans which was 50 miles far from my home. So when they opened one in Chesnut Hill last year, we could not stop our excitement to go there. My husband lived in WNY for a long time, so we both are ardent Wegmans lovers.
Last year during our visits to Wegmans, I found a readymade soup – moroccan lentil soup. I loved it so much that we went again to buy that. It happened quite a few times, then I decided to find a recipe of this soup.
The moroccan lentil soup has lentil and garbanzo – those I absolutely love. It’s mildly spicy and so perfect for dark and cold fall evenings. I have prepared the soup in a vegan way, but you can add butter if you like.
Soup is all about addition and alteration for me. After consulting with a bunch of soup recipes online, I decided to try ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper in my soup. I have used fresh cilantro as garnish, but you’re most welcome to use parsley if you hate cilantro. Many recipes only use green lentils, but I have added some chickpeas as I love chickpea. Again, that’s a personal choice. You can add sweet potato, carrots, fennel or peppers. I have only added carrots.
Recipe for moroccan lentil soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
- 1 medium white onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 medium carrots, finely chopped
- 2 cups green lentil, washed and drained
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup garbanzo beans, drained
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground all-spice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne –
- Crushed black pepper to taste
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped (garnish)
Instructions
- In a heavy-based soup pot, over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add onion pieces and fry for 5 to 6 minutes, or until they are translucent. Add garlic and carrot pieces and cook for an additional 5 to 6 minutes, or until the carrots are soft.
- Add washed lentils and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and cover the pan. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the peas are half tender. Add garbanzo beans, nutmeg, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne, black pepper and salt. Cover and cook for an another 10 to 15 minutes, until they are tender. Serve warm with garnished cilantro on top and toasted bread as side.
I am also on the lookout for new soup recipes these days… love making them and having them as well… with the climate getting cozier, nothing like it! This Moroccan soup is on my hit list to try soon…
I LOVE soup, so this one will be made very soon! Still need to learn the smoky hot photos from you 🙂
Anytime and anything for you Jehanne!
Wow the soup looks delicious. I did chop in some mustard greens too to it.
Lovely post Dolphia.. A perfect soup for this weather. Amazing clicks as always.
This one looks so tempting, yes healthy food can be tasty too.
Is green lentil same as whole masoor dal? I am going to make this soup tomorrow, perfect for this weather.
Vidya, look the picture of ingredients. Can you identify the lentil?
Yes, I looked at it earlier. Looked like whole masoor to me that I normally buy at the Indian grocery store. So, just wanted to confirm with you.
Please do give a try, and let me know if you loved it.
That looks so tempting – love it !!!
Love the pictures – beautiful post and I’ll be making it very soon, so yum !
Ok, these are French green lentils not masoor. I made this soup today using whole masoor, that’s what I had at hand. It was so hearty and filling. Everybody enjoyed it. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
I am so glad Vidya, you liked!
Love the recipe and also love your dishes …. where do you buy them from? They are beautiful
Different places. Which one are you particularly asking?
The one in the first picture – its BEAUTIFUL!!
CLOVES?.
This was a great recipe; absolutely delicious. Just tried it out and I’m very happy with it. I have two specific comments: (1) Cloves? There are no cloves in the ingredient list, but there are cloves in the directions and (2) I’m not sure if this is because I’m at an elevation of over 5000 feet, but I had to add 4 cups of liquid for this to look like soup.
Now that I’ve made that liquid adjustment, I will definitely make this again.