Dear Grace, You Love This Soup. I Must Have Made It for You,

• temps total: 43 minutes

Ingrédients

This will easily make enough soup for x4 portions, it freezes well too.

300g dried small green or brown lentils, soaked for 30 mins in cold water

2 onions, finely diced

4 garlic, finely chopped

Cinnamon stick, or use big pinch of ground

1 tbsp tomato puree, sometimes I add it, sometimes I don’t.

1 big bunch of coriander, all stalks chopped small, leaves roughly chopped (mint is also nice here instead or coriander, use a bit less & skip using the stalks, just the leaves)

2 heaped tsp ground cumin

2 heaped tsp ground coriander

Salt & pepper, to taste

Juice of 1 - 2 lemons, depending on juiciness

Chilli flakes, I’m using Aleppo Chilli, I like the sweet hot heat, stickier the better too, I sent you off with some of these, they are indispensable IMO.

Sumac, this is a great ingredient, you can use more if you don’t have enough lemon, it’s a very sour / fruity dried ground berry (again, you have some!)

Greek yogurt, to serve

Olive oil, or, you could brown some butter to serve on top, that’s also v nice here, but my guess is you’ll go the olive oil route

Instructions

In a pan over moderate heat, cook onions till soft & translucent, 8 mins, depending on how small you’ve diced them! Add garlic, cook for 2 mins more. Add cinnamon stick, ground spices, coriander stalks & big big pinch of salt, cook for 3 mins more, maybe with a splash more oil to get things nice & sticky. Add drained lentils, top up with fresh water, about 2cm higher than ingredients in pan, bring to boil, skim off any froth, then simmer over moderate heat for around 30 mins, until lentil is tender. Blend with the coriander leaves & lemon juice, check seasoning, it likes a bit of salt! Serve with big spoon of yogurt, chilli flakes, sumac if you have any, and a big glug of olive oil, the warm soup makes the olive oil on top especially delicious.

Missing you, always, Mum x