red lentil coconut soup

Soo.. About that starting to blog about my food more thing. Apparently it lasted that one day. As usual :( But no, maybe I haven't been doing well with writing it down, but I have been sticking to my meal plans pretty well and it has been helping! I made a couple delicious meals lately and I do want to write them here so I can find them later. So let's get started with the best and most important one lately: the Red Lentil Coconut Soup.

Just the name itself sounds so delicious and comforting. Red lentils sound so hearty and soulful.  And coconut- don't get me started. One look at my pinterest and it is clear that I cannot pass up any recipe that has the word coconut in the title. It just makes it sound so good to me! Creamy but tropical and exotic and yummy. I have about five different coconut soups and I really am going to try them all. 

This recipe though. It was actually one of my favorite meals. And its just soup! I've never been that big of a fan of soup and I never expected one to change my world. But this one has. It's substantial enough to be filling. It's healthy enough to feel good about. It's so flavorful anyone would love it. And it doesn't even have meat in it. And even the mister liked it. With no meat. I know. This is definitely going to be a go to soup recipe for me. I see myself bringing it over to neighbors when they're sick, potlucks, and making it for my family all the time. I found the recipe here, but it was actually vegan so I played around with it a bit to fit my tastes more.

{rinse}

2 cups red lentils as you would with rice and set aside

Use a large pot!

{heat}

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced

 ½ jalepeno pepper

until soft

{add}

2 tablespoon curry powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup tomato paste

2 teaspoons sriracha chili sauce

7 cups chicken stock

1 can coconut milk

1/3 cup mascarpone cheese

2 cups lentils (that you just rinsed)

1 can chickpeas

Cook uncovered for about 20 minutes. Add the lime juice at the end, along with any more of any of the spices to taste. Serve :) It's even better after being reheated a few times. I actually made it earlier in the day and reheated it for dinner, which was good for it I think. It was even better the next day after being reheated again. Add a bit more stock, or some water or milk in reheating to thin it back down as it thickens when cooled!