Crock Pot Craze: Successful Entrees

Soup 'n' Salad That Makes a Lunch Great

After a warm weather hiatus, the Lunch Bunch at work have revved up the crock pot. It’s been a little snowy here in Washington, D.C., for October, and though the skies cleared, it still feels like a cool fall day.

A special thanks to Laura here at work for putting in the lion’s share of the labor and to the wonderful creator of the 101COOKBOOKS.COM site for this cold weather treat. The cilantro and scallion topping is a critical component providing a spikey zip at the end of each bite. I really love how the flavors mesh well, when you have crock pot.

Today’s crock pot result?!

Coconut Red Lentil Soup

Serves 6-10

Prep time: 10 min – Cook time: 35 min

1 cup yellow split peas

1 cup red split lentils (masoor dal)

7 cups water

1 medium carrot, cut into 1/2-inch dice

2 T fresh peeled and minced ginger

2 T curry powder

2 T butter or ghee

8 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced

1/3 c golden raisins

1/3 c tomato paste

1 14-oz can coconut milk

2 t fine grain sea salt

1 small handful cilantro, finely chopped

cooked brown rice or farro, for serving (optional)

Give the split peas and lentils a good rinse—until they no longer put off murky water. Place them in an extra-large soup pot, cover with the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the carrot and 1/4 of the ginger. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the split peas are soft.

In the meantime, in a small dry skillet or saucepan over low heat, toast the curry powder until it is quite fragrant. Be careful though, you don’t want to burn the curry powder, just lightly toast it. Set aside. Place the butter in a pan over medium heat, add half of the green onions, the remaining ginger, and raisins. Sauté for two minutes stirring constantly, then add the tomato paste and sauté for another minute or two more.

Add the toasted curry powder to the tomato paste mixture, mix well, and then add this to the simmering soup along with the coconut milk and salt. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or so. The texture should thicken up, but you can play around with the consistency if you like by adding more water, a bit at a time, if you like. Or simmer longer for a thicker consistency. The thicker this soup got, the more I liked it.

The original recipe says that you can enjoy this soup over ~1/2 cup of warm farro (leftover from this FARRO BEAN STEW RECIPE. But for the office, brown rice is a good substitute.

Sprinkle each bowl generously with cilantro and the remaining green onions, and serve.

Yummmmmmm!

Keep your eyes peeled for the salad recipe. It’ll be coming up soon in a later blog post.

- See more at: http://www.alunchboxblog.com/the-lunch-bunch-reunites/?preview=true&preview_id=236&preview_nonce=ad5e7fbafc#sthash.0L7rrNq6.dpuf