Red Lentil Soup with Lemon: An Easy Favorite for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

I made this Lemony Red Lentil Soup with Cilantro a few months ago but I really wanted it again. There are plenty of red lentil soup recipes around but when you don't feel like making a big effort in the kitchen, this one is perfect. I had been craving red lentil soup but could not find any red lentils stocked in the stores. When I complained to a friend, she sent me a bag of them from Amazon--something I could have thought of doing myself, but oh so nice when someone else does it for you!

In Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express, the soup has a cilantro oil on top. I didn't have fresh cilantro so I added dried cilantro to the soup and topped it instead with fired onions and a dollop of yogurt. I also added a carrot just because. I am copying the recipe sketch from the book below and you can find it typed out as a recipe here.

Lemony Red Lentil Soup
Slightly Adapted From Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express 
(Makes about 4 Servings)

Cook a chopped onion in olive oil in a saucepan until soft (I added a chopped carrot too); add one cup of red lentils, four cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil, then continue simmering until the lentils are soft (about 15 minutes). (I added 2 tsp dried cilantro & 1/2 tsp dried coriander and used non-chicken bouillon.) If yu like, puree half the lentils until almost smooth; return them to the pan. (I kept my lentils solid.) Add about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or more to taste. Adjust the seasonings, and serve with crusty bread or a mound of rice in the center.

Notes/Results: This totally hit the spot--it was just what I wanted today--simple and delicious. It's a good base recipe for spices if you want more of them to or you want to change it up a bit. For me, I am happy with it just as it is.

Let's see who is waiting in the Souper Sundays kitchen this week:

Judee of Gluten Free A-Z Blog shared Chilled Sweet Carrot Soup and said, "This isn't just any ordinary carrot soup! It's fragrant, captivating, delicious and refreshing- perfect for a very hot humid day- the kind of days that we are experiencing in Florida right now. Roasted carrots are the perfect base for this 5 ingredient easy to make soup.  The carrots pair beautifully with the freshly squeezed orange juice and some warming sweet spices!"

Shawnee of Allotment2Kitchen brought Broccoli Soup with Cream of Horseradish and said, "I am surprised at quite how often broccoli nearly goes to waste in my home, but always rescued from finding its way to the compost bin in the form of a bowl of soup. … We have had this Broccoli Soup with Cream of Horseradish twice.  Firstly as is - just Broccoli and Lemon, the second time I remembered to stir in the creamed horseradish."

Thank you to Judee and Shaheen for joining me this week!

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here.
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up to Souper Sundays in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and add a link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to this post or my blog on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (completely optional).

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a happy, healthy week and stay safe and well!