Easy Lentil Soup with carrot

Lentil soup is a very popular Mauritian recipe. It is also very healthy as lentils are known to have high levels of proteins, and usually, lentil soup can be cooked with meat or as a completely vegetarian recipe. This Mauritian lentil soup recipe is completely meatless, and includes carrots, which as you all probably know, are a very good for your eyes! You can have this vegetarian lentil soup with bread croutons or with rice or simply on its own.
Note: Brown lentils take much less time to cook than beans, so you don’t have to add so much water, or you’ll end with lots of liquid in the end. In summary, add less water than you would when cooking red beans.

Check out my other Beans recipes!

Easy Lentil Soup with carrot recipe

Ingredients:
200g brown lentils, soaked for at least 30 minutes
2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1cm ginger, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled-washed-grated
2 dried red chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp thyme leaves

Steps:
1. Heat oil in pressure cooker over medium heat. Add dried red chillies and cumin seeds. When they start to crackle, add the chopped onions. Fry until translucent.
2. Add thyme leaves, garlic and ginger. Fry until fragrant.
3. Add chopped tomatoes, 1/4 tsp salt and cook until tomatoes become soft and mash them with spatula.
4. Add pre-soaked brown lentils and water to cover the lentils a little more by about 3-5cm. Bring to a boil and pressure cook over medium heat until lentils are cooked. It should take about 10 minutes.
5. Add more water if neccessary. Add grated carrot and let simmer for another 5 minutes.
6. Check for salt. Remove from heat and serve!