Indian style Red Lentil Soup that is hearty and delicious with the addition of warm Indian spices.
Today’s lentil based dish is a hearty and nutritious Indian style Red Lentil soup — it is nothing but our everyday dal 🙂 The first time I heard about lentil soup, I thought it was a very complicated dish until I realized it’s nothing but our very own masoor dal with tomato. My son loves this ‘soup’, so I keep making it for him once in a while.
This soup recipe is adapted from Tarla Dalal’s Bombay Curry soup recipe. I added more spices because I wanted to add that Indian flavor to the soup. Also I like some crunch and texture in my soup, so I added a tempering with crunchy chana & urad dal. To add some color and a reason to eat more veggies, I sauteed some baby spinach for the topping.
The original Bombay soup is served with some rice on top. So along with my crunchy dal and spinach topping, I added some rice to the soup too. This dish takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish — making it perfect for a weeknight dinner. Serve it with some bread on the side instead of rice and you have a comforting and filling meal.
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 81.
Indian style Red Lentil Soup
Ingredients
For the Soup:
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 cup Red Lentils (Masoor Dal)
- 1 Medium Onion, finely chopped
- 2 Medium Tomatoes, chopped
- 2 Garlic Cloves, crushed
- ½ tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp Ground Cumin
- ½ tsp Ground Coriander
- To taste Salt Pepper
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
For the Topping:
- 2 tsp Oil
- 1 tsp chana dal
- 1 tsp urad dal
- ½ tsp Crushed Pepper Flakes (optional)
- 2~3 cups Baby Spinach
- To taste salt
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Add onions and garlic and cook till the onions turn translucent.
- Next add the tomatoes, chili powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, salt and pepper. Cook till the tomatoes are mushy.
- Add lentils and 21/2~3cups of water. Close the lid and cook for 2~3 whistles. Let the pressure come down naturally.
- Open the lid and whisk the lentils until smooth. If the soup looks too thick, add some water and simmer until heated through.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the lemon juice.
Make the Topping:
- Heat oil in a small pan, add the chana dal, urad dal and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook till the dal turns golden. Add the spinach and cook until just wilted, about 3~4 minutes.
- Serve the soup warm topped with the spinach and Enjoy!!
Vaishali
Very interesting way to serve the regular daal . The spinach and rice give a fine colour to the soup , the Chana and urad dal sound excellent for the crunch . Awesome pick .
Mayuri Patel
An interesting way to serve masoor dal. I like how just a little bit of rice and spinach are added to make it into a filling and wholesome meal.
Priya Suresh
Excellent dal coup and love how you have presented this soup with rice and spinach on it, comforting soup definitely.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
I personally live the flavor of masoor dal and use it very often. Love the Indian flavored dal/soup. I like adding a layer of flavor by using the spinach as a topping.
Harini
Love the soup and the spinach layer on top is a brilliant variation to the regular soups.
Veena
I make masoor dal soup in a slightly different way and I didn’t know it had this name. Beautifully shot
Lisa Morgan
Hi Pavani,
Thanks for this recipe. I have an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot). Do you have any idea how many minutes under high pressure would equal 2-3 whistles in a stovetop cooker? If not, no worries–I can estimate based on other IP recipes for red lentil soups.
Looking forward to trying this.
Best,
Lisa
cookshideout
Hi Lisa, I make this recipe for 6 minutes in Instant Pot and it comes out perfect. Thank you for your comment – reminded me to update the post with IP instructions. Hope you enjoy the soup.
Lisa
Thanks–6 mins. in the IP was perfect for me, too. And I really liked the crunch of the toasted chana dal on top of the soup. I felt hesitant to try it, but I found out it’s great. 🙂 If I can get a good photo, I’ll put it on IG.
cookshideout
Hi Lisa, so glad you liked the recipe. Thank you so much for letting me know. I look forward to your IG post.