Another savoury adventure from Sabrina Ghayour’s cookbook Bazaar. The last time I attempted this it was the autumn of the first year of the pandemic. Such a contrast to the life we are living now.
This was my batch cook for the week. It is quite the joy and a pleasant distraction to make lunch from scratch on a week day but some weeks like the one coming up would be potentially quite busy so I wanted to make things as simple as possible.
Ingredients
2 tsp fennel seeds
Vegetable oil or ghee
50g fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated
1 onion, diced
500g carrots, scrubbed and cut into rough chunks
2 fat garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tsp turmeric
2 L boiling water
Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tbsp)
150g uncooked red lentils
4 tbsp labneh or thick Greek yogurt
4 tsp sesame oil
Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Couple of pinches of pul biber (red pepper flakes) and/or chilli flakes to garnish
Method:
1.Toast the fennel seeds in a large, dry saucepan over a medium heat for two minutes, then drizzle in a little vegetable oil or ghee and add the ginger and onion. Saute until the onion begins to soften, without letting it brown. Add the carrot to the pan and stir-fry until the edges begin to soften.
2.Now add the garlic, turmeric and a generous amount of salt and pepper to the saucepan and mix well. Pour over the boiling water, adjust the heat to bring the mixture to a simmer and simmer gently, without a lid, for 45 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then blitz the mixture using a handheld blender or transfer to a food processor or blender.
3.Return the soup to the pan if necessary, adjust the seasoning, then stir in the lemon juice. Set the pan over a medium heat and stir in the red lentils. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30-40 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. If the soup seems too thick, blitz half the mixture using the hand-held blender, food processor or blender. Divide the soup between four bowls. Dollop one tablespoon of labneh into each bowl and drizzle one teaspoon of sesame oil over the top. Finish with a sprinkling of pul biber/pepper/chilli flakes and serve.
