No ordinary Joes.
This recipe is adapted from Angela Liddon’s Glowing Spiced Lentil Soup from her popular plant-based food blog, Oh She Glows. Red lentils are a fantastic source of fiber making this hearty stew a heart-healthy go-to. With 90 percent of the Daily Value (DV) of folate and 37 percent of the DV of iron for every 1 cup of cooked lentils consumed, this recipe is a perfect choice for women looking to optimize their essential nutrient intake and promote reproductive health.
This comforting soup is wonderfully creamy, with warm and satisfying hits from coriander, cumin and, most importantly, fresh turmeric. When in season, fresh turmeric is available from many supermarkets and Indian grocery stores, and you may well be able to find it online. You could use ground turmeric for this recipe if you can’t find fresh, but bear in mind its flavour is more powerful than that of fresh. The lentils and chicken work very well together, but if you prefer you can make a vegetarian version by omitting the chicken and doubling the quantity of lentils. And, as a change from soup, you could try this dish with rice and a dollop of yogurt on top.
Fish is easily overcooked, which makes it a strong candidate for slow cooking and an easy night's work for the cook--unless of course you complicate matters by throwing something tricky into the mix. I love a culinary dare. Rich fish like salmon and mackerel are delicious served with beans, but the two cook at such different rates, they typically can't be cooked together. By using red lentils, which are the softest of dried beans, and a forgiving fatty fish, like farm-raised salmon, I found I could trim the difference to about 10 minutes. A brief simmering of the lentils on their own does it; then the salmon is added and everything slow-bakes together in a low oven.
Lustily spiced, cooled with fresh herbs, and sharpened with lemon, this type of lentil soup is what Moroccans eat to ward off the chill of the desert night.