Curry Lentil Soup with Cauliflower Rice {VEGAN}
I've taken a bit of a sabbatical from the blog-- just needed a pause from everyday life for a minute. I spent so much time with my family in California, have been cooking up a storm, and finally feel like I got my footing at my new job.
If you follow me on Instagram, instagram.com/dailydoseofdem you can see that I've recently become a NUUN Ambassador, and have taken a new found interest in Running! Don't worry, this post isn't about NUUN, I promise it's actually about this amazing lentil soup recipe; I just also want to fill you in on my life the last few months!
Running has been my outlet since June and I can't imagine where my life was before it! However, as with everything you throw yourself in full throttle, you also need some breaks. I'm on a little small pause from that too, but not for long-- half marathon coming your way in April 2020!
Okay, we're caught up now... scroll down for the recipe!
The winter in New England has been SO weird this year. We've gone from bone chilling cold, to "oh look, the sun" and then oops, it's still cold and some days it's over 50 (hello spring!). Despite the whiplash, I've been making large amounts of soup on my meal prepping days and then eating it throughout the week with other veggies and sometimes different proteins to keep it exciting.
For many years, I've made the curried Cauliflower soup from Cotter Crunch (see here), she really is amazing and this soup is SO SO good. But I didn't have half of the things I should have for this soup, so I decided to play around with some of the flavors and make my own. I've made it for 3 weeks now and it's so good.
Recipe:
2 tbs. Olive oil
1 medium yellow Onion, chopped
2 tbs. Madras Curry powder
1 tbs. Turmeric powder
1 tsp. Cumin powder
1 tsp. Smoked paprika powder
16 oz. Vegetable Broth (low-sodium)
1 Jalapeño (can omit if you don't like spicy food)
1 Bay Leaf
1 cup Unsweetened, unflavored Non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened, original Almond Milk)
1 tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 cup black lentils, dry
1 + 1/2 cup Cauliflower rice
3 bags fresh Spinach
Yields 4 servings
Directions: I used frozen Cauliflower rice, but if you prefer to make your own, I would make that first and set aside. I just find the frozen bags to be so much easier and I always have a few in my freezer. Then I would wash your lentils-- if you don't do this, please start! My grandma use to always say that you have to "pick" your lentils because there can always be rocks in there. She's not wrong, every time I make lentils I always pull out 1-2 rocks they're really small, maybe they dissolve in the heat or maybe they'll break you tooth; I don't like to chance it so I just do it every time. I take 1 cup of black lentils, throw them into a baking sheet and pick out anything that doesn't look like it belongs, rocks, sticks, etc. Then I rinse my lentils in water and set aside.
In a large stock pan, that you will then use for your soup, add in the oil and onion and cook on medium heat until translucent. Then add in the spices, turn up the heat here. You want to almost "fry" your spices but not burn them. They should become fragrant, when the pan gets very hot use your Vegetable broth to deglaze and begin your soup base.
As the pot is coming to boil, I whisked in the spices so everything was very smooth. If using the jalapeño, I first washed it, then crushed it slightly with my hands, cut in half and threw it in there.
I let the broth boil, bring down to a simmer for 25 minutes. Then I added the almond milk and apple cider vinegar, whisk super fast so nothing curdles and gets clumpy. Make sure your soup is not on a roaring boil. After about 5 minutes with the almond milk, I added in the black lentils and cauliflower rice. Let it simmer another 20 minutes. I rough chopped the fresh spinach leaves, took out the bay leaf and added the spinach.
Mixed everything together and let simmer until spinach wilts. Then take it off the stove so your spinach doesn't turn brown-- that means it's overcooked .A dark green is just perfect! Honestly, I think it was so much better the second day... if you can wait that long!