Coconut Cauliflower Red Lentil Soup

After a quick burst of recipes to make in the heat of summer (Portobello Pineapple Burgers and Fresh Veggie Spring Rolls), we had a few days of cold, rainy, blustery weather. When it first started to rain, I opened all the windows to cool down the house and it never really warmed back up. I’m shivering as I am typing this. All I really want to do is curl up with a hot bowl of soup (and some sort of chocolate) and watch the The Voice on Hulu. So for all of you who still have some unpredictable spring weather, I have a delicious, exotic, and super healthy soup.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 jalapeno, chopped fine
• 1 TBSP. fresh ginger, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 1 TBSP. curry powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/3 C. tomato paste
• 7 C. water
• 1 can unsweetened light coconut milk
• 2 C. red split lentils ( the orange split-pea shaped ones)
• 1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
• 1 TBSP. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 C. roughly shopped cilantro

Directions:
1. Chop up the onion, bell pepper, jalapeno, ginger, and garlic. I just got a food processor and have been using it for everything. It made prep for this soup really easy. I just quickly trimmed them up and threw them straight in the food processor, gave it a few pulses, and everything was chopped fine.
2. Heat a little bit of oil in the bottom of large soup pot. Add the onion, peppers, ginger, and garlic to the oil and heat until onions are tender, stirring to prevent burning.
3. Add the curry powder, cinnamon, salt and tomato paste and stir for a another minute or two.(I always put the unused tomato paste in a baggy and freeze it for next time I need it. I never use a whole can at once.) Add the water, coconut milk, lentils, chickpeas, and cauliflower. Cook until the red lentils are tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Add the lime juice and cilantro right at the end of cooking. Stir and taste then add more lime juice and salt if needed. Serve with lime wedges.

I also served it with some delicious whole grain spelt rolls (which I will post next time).

Recipe from Edible Experiments, adapted from Scaling Back