Curried Green Lentil Soup

Wow, winter has officially taken over Switzerland. It's been snowing all weekend and freezing all day today. Not that I'd mind. I love cold weather and I love to indulge in cold weather food. Soups that is - to me. I was craving a soup with more substance that the usual vegetable soup and turned to food52.com - one of my favourite websites - for inspiration. 

Today's recipe is originally by Heidi Swanson from 101cookbooks.com and completes the soup with a curried brown butter and fried cubes of paneer. I chose to omit the cheese and instead of drizzling the soup with curried butter, I added the curry powder to the soup which gave it an Indian touch, turned it vegan and gave it a nice depth and warmth. It is super easy, with almost no prep time and incredibly warming and comforting.
Here's the link to the recipe: http://food52.com/recipes/33911-green-lentil-soup-with-curried-brown-butter

And here's my version of the recipe:

2 tablespoons butter, ghee or coconut oil (I used coconut oil to merge flavours)
1 large yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic (I omitted the garlic, as most of the time)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
5 1/2 cups (1375 ml) vegetable broth or water
1 1/2 cups green lentils (about 350 to 400g)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (if you go for the curried butter)
1 tablespoon Indian curry powder
1/2 cup (125ml) coconut milk
fine sea salt, to season

1) Chop the onion and garlic cloves, if using. Rinse the lentils.

2) Combine the coconut oil, onion, garlic and red pepper flakes in a large soup pot over medium heat, and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring here and there until the onions are soft.

3) Pour in the vegetable broth and add the lentils and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender. Start checking after 20 minutes, but keeping mind that it may take as long as 50 minutes. Mine took about 35 minutes.

(4) While the lentils cook, heat the 3 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir it constantly with a rubber spatula until it starts to foam and brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and sauté until the mixture is very fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Set aside.)

4) When the lentils have finished cooking, take the pot off the heat and stir in the coconut milk, curry powder (if you're veganizing the soup) and 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt. 

5) Purée the soup using an immersion blender, or transfer it in batches to a blender of food processor. Add a little more salt to taste, if necessary.

(6) Stir in the curried butter and taste the soup for salt, adding more as needed. Serve the soup drizzled with the remaining curried butter and with cubes of pan-fried paneer, if you like.)

Serves: 4-5
Active preparation time: 5 minutes
Total preparation time: 40-45 minutes

Here's how mine looks:

The chili flakes add quite the punch even though the recipe only asks for 1/2 teaspoon so if you're not into hot food, take the chili down to 1/4 teaspoon. I normally am not a huge fan of hot food either, but today it hit the right spot with me. I love the earthy creaminess from the lentils, the depth from the chili and curry and the slightest sweetness from the coconut milk. This is not your typical soup and definitely serves as a whole meal because of the lentils, but it is simply perfect on a cold winter's night and beautiful comfort food.

Have fun trying!!