Spicy Lentil Soup

It was a bit chilly this morning so I decided to make some soup for lunch. I have never made lentil soup before so I thought I would give it a try. Spicy usually goes over well with the boys but even after adding smoked sausage to their I could sell them on it. Oh well, all the more for me.

Spicy Lentil Soup
adapted from Food Network Magazine September 2010
2 cups red lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/2 green pepper, roughly chopped*
1 large tomato, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp Arbol chile powder*
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Kosher salt
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
 
Bring the lentils and 7 cups of warm water to a boil. Add the pepper, tomato, ginger, garlic, chile powder, turmeric and 2 teaspoons salt. Simmer partially covered until thickened, about 20 minutes. Thin with water if necessary. (I just happened to be cooking cannellini beans this morning as well so I used a little for the bean cooking water to thin it out.) Stir in the cilantro and yogurt.




* The original recipes called for a serrano pepper which I did not have in the house. So after some pepper research the Arbol is a little hotter than a serrano so rather than using a 2 tsp of the chile powder which is the equivalent of whole pepper I reduced it slightly.