{"id":1750,"date":"2010-09-04T13:16:59","date_gmt":"2010-09-04T05:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=1750"},"modified":"2012-12-24T15:46:52","modified_gmt":"2012-12-24T07:46:52","slug":"red-lentil-kumara-and-coconut-soup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/red-lentil-kumara-and-coconut-soup\/","title":{"rendered":"Red lentil, kumara and coconut soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A little while ago I realised that my obsession for food magazines and cookbooks was completely out of control.\u00a0 My bookshelves were almost bursting\u00a0out of the shelves, my spare room looked more like a library as each day passed and the spare piles of magazines were becoming high enough that I could use them as a coffee table.\u00a0 So I made a commitment to only subscribe to one magazine for the year and buy others only if I knew that I\u00a0would cook more than\u00a0two recipes from it.\u00a0 This also meant that I could start and consult my vast number of cookbooks more often rather than just letting them gather dust.<\/p>\n

With these best intentions in mind while visiting\u00a0the newsagent recently I found myself standing\u00a0in front of the food magazines.\u00a0 Remembering my rules for purchasing such items I flicked through one of my favourite reads called dish<\/em><\/a>\u00a0from New Zealand.\u00a0 My gorgeous (brilliant cook) friend Karina showed me this once and I was in awe.\u00a0 The issue I held in my hand was yet another fabulous one with great stories, some unusual recipes and a sealed meat\u00a0section for\u00a0carnivores only.\u00a0\u00a0I knew there were at least three things<\/a> that I would create from this magazine so I tucked it under my arm and made my way to the register.<\/p>\n

On the evening that I cooked this dish\u00a0I was looking for something simple, tasty and healthy for a mid-week dinner.\u00a0 Soup is one of those things that I love to cook and to eat.\u00a0 It is normally a one pot dish\u00a0filled with any number of delicious ingredients that can become a meal in\u00a0itself.\u00a0 This particular soup was vegetarian and had slightly unusual ingredients.\u00a0 Not that you wouldn’t have most of the things you need in the pantry it is just that they may not be something that you would normally include in a pot of soup.\u00a0 That is one of the things that made me want to try this dish.<\/p>\n

red lentil, kumara and coconut soup (recipe\u00a0from\u00a0August\/September 2010 issue of dish<\/em> magazine)
\nmakes 8 cups of soup, serves 6 – 8<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients
\n<\/span>3 tablespoons olive oil
\n1\u00a0onion, finely chopped
\n1\u00a0carrot, finely chopped
\n2 cloves garlic, crushed
\nsea salt
\n1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
\n1 tablespoon black or yellow mustard seeds
\n2 teaspoons Madras curry powder
\n1 x 400g (14ozs) tin crushed Italian tomatoes
\n400g (14ozs) kumara, peeled and diced into 2cm (1 inch) pieces
\n2 apples, peeled, cored and diced into 2cm (1 inch) pieces
\n\u00bd cup (125ml) coconut cream
\n4 cups (1 litre) chicken or vegetable\u00a0stock
\n\u00be cup (150g\/5.3ozs) red lentils
\nto serve<\/em>
\n\u00bc cup chopped coriander plus extra for garnish
\n\u00bd cup long thread coconut, toasted
\nextra coconut cream<\/p>\n

Preparation\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/em>Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.\u00a0 Add the onion, carrot and garlic with a good pinch of salt, cover and cook gently until the vegetables are tender.<\/p>\n

Add the ginger, mustard seeds and curry powder and cook for 2 minutes.\u00a0 (Add a splash of water if the pan is dry).\u00a0 Add the remaining ingredients, season and simmer, partially covered, for 20 – 25 minutes until the kumara is tender.<\/p>\n

To serve, <\/em>stir the chopped coriander into the soup and ladle into\u00a0warm bowls.\u00a0 Top with a drizzle of coconut cream, toasted coconut and coriander<\/p>\n

My tips\/alterations:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0*This is a relatively simple meal to create.\u00a0 The only thing that I would say is to be careful that you do not burn the spices when you add them as they will become bitter.\u00a0 *Also use a curry powder that you like as this will change the overall flavour of the dish.\u00a0 *For a vegertarian version use\u00a0 vegetable stock.<\/p>\n

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ease: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Chop a few ingredients and throw them into a\u00a0pot, what could be simpler.
\nprep time:<\/strong>\u00a010mins.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>
\ncooking time: 40mins.<\/strong>
\ntotal: 50mins.<\/strong><\/p>\n

taste: 9.5\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0I loved this meal.\u00a0 The colours and smell were absolutely gorgeous and both made us want to dive straight in.\u00a0 It was hearty yet light and had so many different flavours that danced over the\u00a0palate in the most harmonious way.\u00a0 It made us feel like we were being very healthy.\u00a0 Even my little carnivore loved it and only deducted\u00a0half a point because it didn’t have any meat. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

would I make it again:\u00a0\u00a0I already have!<\/strong>\u00a0
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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A little while ago I realised that my obsession for food magazines and cookbooks was completely out of control. My bookshelves were almost bursting out of the shelves, my spare room looked more like a library as each day passed and the spare piles of magazines were becoming high enough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,91,31,28,48,47,35,60,23,45,27],"tags":[127,13,104,101,122,118,130,96,116,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}