Shorba – Arab Lentil Soup by Rehana

Hello everyone!

My name is Rehana and I run the blog Rehana Du Jour. I am going to be featuring recipes and ideas on how to get creative in the kitchen here on AltMuslimah for all of you.

Today I have a yummy, light yet satisfying lentil soup recipe for you. I love soup of any kind, and particularly while fasting, I like having a hot bowl of soup (even though it sometimes feels like I am living in a hot bowl of soup) because it fills me up without overeating. Because we enjoy dinners with our friends on the weekends, I like to eat light meals at home to balance out all the blessings.

Lentil soup is a staple soup in the Middle East. It is made with the same lentils that us Southeast Asians use for daal but made the way classic soups are made. It is made light and fresh with freshly squeezed lemon juice and fresh parsley.

This soup doesn’t take long to make and requires a few staple ingredients so when you have a hankering for some soothing soup, you know you can make it fairly quick.

Let’s get started.

First, you’ll need to rinse and soak one and a quarter cups of split red lentils in cool water for 15-20 minutes.

While the lentils are soaking, cut half a cup each of onion, celery, and carrots – a mirepoix if you want to be a fancy French pseudo-chef – and two cloves of garlic.

Next, heat up one teaspoon of oil in a large pot. I prefer using a cast iron pot for a lot of my cooking these days. It retains the heat really well and I got this one from my mom, so that makes it even better!

After the oil has heated up, add the onions, celery, and carrots and sautee over medium heat for seven to ten minutes until they have softened and become slightly translucent. We are not trying to brown these guys so thats why we need to keep the temperature fairly low.

Once they’ve become translucent, add the garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds.

Add in one bay leaf.And the drained lentils.

Next, add in four cups of chicken stock + two cups of water.

Also add in half a teaspoon of freshly ground cumin powder.

And a quarter teaspoon of turmeric. This will enhance the beautiful yellow color of the soup.

Let this come to a boil and then reduce to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, juice one lemon. I’ll take the seeds out before adding it to the soup.

Once your soup has fully cooked and the lentils have softened. Take out the bay leaf and get out your handy dandy immersion blender.

If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can always blend this in a real blender by ladling the soup into the blender. Don’t fill up the blender more than 25% full because the hot soup will expand and you don’t want to blow this lid off of it.

Blend your soup until you have the consistency that you want. I don’t like a fully liquid soup, I like to see some of the vegetables that are in there, but I don’t like chunky soup either. So somewhere in between for me is good, but thats the beauty of cooking, you can adjust it to your taste.

Add in two and a half teaspoons of kosher salt (start with less – you can always add more), half a teaspoon of pepper, the juice from one lemon, and taste for seasonings.

And that’s it! You have a beautiful, velvety pot of soup.

I hope you guys try this recipe out!