#12 Indian Lentil Soup

Many of our friends celebrated "Diwali" or "The Festival of Lights" last week. It was a happy day. My little one's classmate's mom wore a beautiful traditional dress and gave us a present at her school. As she inspected her present in the car on our way home, she asked me a lot of questions about India. I promised that we will "visit" India soon :) I am glad we did it on Monday this week. It was great! Oh, how I truly miss a good home cooked Indian meal. I am now a big lover of Indian Cuisine because of my dear friend Rekha, my former good boss, Usha and former wonderful neighbor, Ashwini. They always made good food. It's delicious and so healthy. Growing up in a home where the pantry had only the following sauces and seasoning all year: soy sauce, fish sauce, bay leaves, salt, pepper and vinegar, Indian cooking can be too complicated for me. I will definitely need a lot of practice to master the art of mixing different spices, and to make a great Indian dish without using measuring cups and spoons. Thanks to recipes online!

We found this recipe by André Grisell for Food.com

INDIAN LENTIL SOUP (DAL SHROVA)

INGREDIENTS:

1- 1/2 cups red lentils

1 tsp. turmeric

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. cardamom

2-3 curry leaves or bay leaves

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

3 tbsps. vegetable oil

2 tsps. mustard seeds

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

salt & pepper

1 lemon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Rinse the lentils.

2. Bring to a boil with the stock, turmeric, cayenne pepper, cumin, cardamom & curry/bay leaves.

3. Let simmer for 30 minutes or until lentils are very soft ( 30 minutes).

4. If using bay leaves, remove them now. Curry leaves can be left in the soup.

5. Mash the beans with a laddle.

6. Sauteé the garlic and mustard seed in oil and add to soup.

7. Let simmer for another 5 minutes.

8. Add salt, pepper and squeezed lemon to taste.

9. Serve hot.

This recipe is SO good! So inexpensive to make and so filling.

 Image via travel.allwomentalk.com

We enjoyed reading about the wonderful meaning of the celebration, and we looked at so many beautiful photos of the "Diwali" and of India. Up next, we made ROTI to go with this soup. We had fun.  ^__^