Joanna's Red Lentil Soup

This is a recipe from a friend - Joanna. She has an old (possibly English) bean cookbook - a little treasure that you probably can't get anymore.

Here is the recipe in her words (email).

2 serving spoons butter
2 garlic cloves: crushed
1 large onion; chopped

Into a saucepan and fry x3 mins, add 1/2 tsp turmeris, 1 tsp garamasala, 1/4 tsp chilli pwd, 1 tsp cumin pwd, and fry x30 secs. Add 2 tins chopped tomato, 1 tin coconut milk, 1 cup red lentils, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 2 1/2 cup veg.boullion. Bring to the boil and simmer x30 mins. Blend.

Its just fabulous. Finally having remembered to buy garam masala, I made it last night and served batsmati rice and garlic shrimp on the side. Its just as filling served with a good bread.


And, I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to let any food go to waste here. In the states our garbage was always filled with old veggies and whatever else. My biggest problem when we left for Christmas vacation was that I had a whole zucchini in the fridge that I just couldn't bear to chuck.

So the other day having the limp center part of a bunch of celery, leek tops, and the butt ends of the carrots I was peeling, I decided to make some vegetable broth. After it cooled, I put it into the plastic ice cube baggies that they have here. Next time I hope to plan ahead and use some small tupperwares or something.