Lentil Soup: A Home-Cook Recipe Worth Making

This lentil soup is one of those recipes our customers keep asking for. Here’s a home-cook version that gets close to the real thing.

The recipe (roughly)

The original was made in larger batches. The proportions for a home cook look something like this:

• 2 cups split yellow peas (the small flat ones, not the round whole peas), rinsed well
• 1 large brown onion, finely diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• A 4cm piece of ginger, grated
• 2 tbsp ghee or olive oil
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 8 fresh curry leaves (10 if you can find them)
• 1.5L vegetable stock (or water + a stock cube)
• 1 tomato, chopped
• Salt to taste
• Lemon to finish, fresh coriander on top

Sweat the onion gently in the ghee for ten minutes, but don’t brown it. Add the garlic, ginger, mustard seeds and curry leaves; stir for a minute until fragrant. Add the dry spices, stir for another thirty seconds (they’ll smell strong; that’s right). Add the lentils and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook on low, lid off, for 45–60 minutes until the lentils have completely broken down. Add the tomato in the last ten minutes. Season generously with salt at the end; lentils need more than you’d think.

Finish with a squeeze of lemon and fresh coriander. The lemon is non-negotiable; without it the soup tastes flat.

A small tip that makes a big difference

Toast your whole spices in a dry pan before grinding them, even a minute over medium heat. The aroma changes from grocery-store to something else entirely. If you don’t have whole spices on hand, gently warm the ground spices in the ghee for a few extra seconds before adding the lentils.

Heating it up properly

A 500ml container feeds two as a generous starter or one as a meal with bread.

On the stove (best): Pour into a small saucepan, add a splash of water (about 30ml; it thickens overnight), warm gently on medium-low for 4–5 minutes, stirring. Don’t boil it; you’ll break the texture.

In the microwave (faster): Pour into a microwave-safe bowl, cover loosely, heat on medium (not high) for 90 seconds, stir, heat another 60–90 seconds.

Either way, a fresh squeeze of lemon and a spoonful of plain yoghurt swirled in at the end makes it taste like it just came out of the pot.

What goes with it

Crusty sourdough or pappadums (we stock both). A simple cucumber-and-mint salad. A glass of crisp white wine, if it’s that kind of evening.

Pick up the ingredients

We stock split yellow peas, ghee, fresh curry leaves, and all the spices on the list. Drop in or phone us and we’ll bag the lot for you.