Red lentil and tomato soup with split peas

This vegan red lentil and tomato soup recipe is influenced by a Shan-Burmese menu item at Freebird Cafe in Chiang Mai.

Freebird is part of a social enterprise that not only maintains a cafe with outstanding food, but also works in partnership with Burmese migrants and other sidelined groups in Thailand to provide education, vocational services, emergency help, and more. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in Chiang Mai.

A couple of years ago I visited a friend who promised me lunch. Upon my arrival, and with so much pride in their voice, they announced a newfound celebration of making meals with 3 ingredients or fewer. I braced myself, as I often do when someone announces self-imposed culinary constraints, wondering if even salt might perhaps make the final cut. This friend is not known for their culinary prowess.

The meal they chose to prepare was red lentil soup. True to their word, the ingredients were limited; just red lentils, water, vegetable bouillon powder, and a smidge of chilli featured in the ingredients list. It was a memorable meal, and there's not a hint of sarcasm in this statement.

I'm a believer in the simplicity of highlighting a single ingredient in cooking, so it's not that I'm reluctant to cook this way myself. It's more that I get wound up in the complexity of things like curry pastes and spicing to the extent that I am wont to forget to go back to basics, to look toward homey and rustic dishes I can walk away from with a resolute understanding of its main component. Lentils are magical.

And so, with the memory of my friend's lentil soup combined with the experience of a gorgeous Shan style red lentil soup in Chiang Mai, I crafted this recipe. It's got more than 3 ingredients but, given my forever quest to conquer a perpetually overwhelmed pantry, it's a step in the right direction? Right? (Right).

📖 Recipe

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Red lentil and tomato soup with split peas

This soup is an easy vegan weeknight dinner, perfect alongside fresh bread or steamed rice. If you like it spicy, use a stronger chilli powder. For medium heat I use Korean gochugaru powder. If you're averse to chilli spice, look to paprika instead. If you prefer a thinner soup, you can add more water.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 100 grams sliced (preferably vertically from stem to root) onion (½ a UK large or US medium onion)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ tablespoons chopped garlic 14 grams
• 1 heaped tablespoon thinly sliced lemongrass (from the pale lower section, not the green upper stem) 10 grams
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger 8 grams
• 1-3 teaspoons chilli powder, gochugaru, or paprika
• ½ teaspoon ground dried turmeric
• 600 millilitres water 2 ½ cups
• 1 400 gram tin of chopped tomatoes
• 50 grams split red lentils (red masoor daal) ¼ cup
• 55 grams split chickpeas (chana dal) ¼ cup
• fresh herbs (e.g. coriander, spring onion) for topping optional

Instructions

• Heat the vegetable oil to medium heat in a medium sized (2 litres +) saucepan. Add the sliced onions. Cook, stirring very frequently, for around 10 minutes, until the onion begins to brown.
• Pound the salt, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, chilli powder, and turmeric into a paste using a pestle and mortar. If you don't have a pestle and mortar then just make sure the ingredients are finely minced. Add to the onions and cook, stirring constantly, for 2-3 minutes. If the paste sticks to the pot, add a bit more oil.
• Add water, tinned tomatoes, lentils, and split peas. Bring to the boil and then immediately turn to a low simmer. Cover and cook for around 30-40 minutes, or until the split peas are cooked. If the soup gets too dry during cooking, you can top it up with some more water.
• Spoon the soup into bowls and top with fresh herbs, to your liking.