Moroccan Spicy Lentil & Bean Soups

Spice it up, add tasty seasonings to dull pulses and you'll get wonderful steaming bowls of soup that even lentil-haters will eat. Lentils, beans and chickpea soups

This vegetarian lentil soup is an excellent healthy pick-you-up. It’s Great for cold days, quick and easy to make if you have unexpected guests and really economical. It even goes down well with non-lentil eaters!

Spicy but not too hot and over-powering it tastes even better the day after but the only way to have enough leftover is to make double the quantity in the first place!

Moroccan Spiced Lentil Soup Recipes

• 7 cups hot water
• 1 ½ cups dried brown lentils
• 3 cups chopped onions
• 2 tsps instant beef bouillon
• 1 ½ tsps cumin
• ¾ tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp paprika

1. Put the water into a pan and bring it to the boil, add the lentils bring it back to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer the lentils for 10 minutes.
2. In the meantime, heat the oil and cook the onions until soft and transparent.
3. Add the cooked onions to the pan of lentils.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients, cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes.

**************************

For a heartier mixed pulse soup try this wonderfully warming

Spiced Lentil, Chickpea and Bean Soup – Moroccan Style

• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 6 cups water
• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 15oz tin chickpeas - drained
• 1 19 oz tin cannellini beans - drained
• 1 14.5 oz tin diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

1. In large pan cook the onions, garlic and ginger in the little olive oil for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the water and the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil, cook for a few minutes and then lower the heat and leave to simmer for 1 to 1 ½ hours minimum, the longer you leave it the better it becomes.
3. Take out about one-third of the soup, leave it to cool slightly then liquidize it and return it to the soup pan. This make a thicker soup that is still has chunky beans and chickpeas visible.

Tip

Garam marsala is a blend of Indian spices, for a true Moroccan flavour you need to use rus al hanoot if you can find it - the Moroccan blend of spices.

Lentils

Start a Discussion

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds