Red Lentil Thai Curry Soup & Tear The Roots

How do you feel about silence? Have you ever really thought about it? Silence has come to mean many different things over the years,  a mixture of good and bad. Have you ever noticed what silence means depending on who you are with? With your partner or closest friend, silence can be a comfort. With a rowdy group of friends, silence can feel deadly and yet with quieter friends, it can feel normal and expected.

Silence, especially in the tidal wave of #metoo that overthrew 2017, was an entirely different beast. Silence in this mindset was power for many of the sexual predators that were thriving pre-#metoo. Silence ending here has been a victory. Silence has been on my mind a lot recently. With Martin Luther King Jr Day yesterday, I was also reminded of this quote. “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. ” -MLK Jr.

There are many other notable quotes on silence, all showing the power it has for good and for worse. Another example, “Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”  – Abraham Lincoln. Think about the vastness that silence has played in the past year alone, especially in the context of these two quotes. How has silence impacted your 2017 and beginning of 2018?

If we step back or perhaps closer to the table and think about silence with food, its entirely different matter. If you serve someone a dish and they are silent, is this good or bad? Does silence mean they are enjoying each bite so much that they cannot speak from shear embodying elation or does it mean they have nothing good to say, so why say anything at all? Silence, like food and music, really, is subjective to a fault.

I hope that this Red Lentil Thai Curry soup will not allow you to be silent and instead will have you singing the praises of a complex and savory, hearty soup. If you must be silent after a bite, at least let me see with the corners of your mouth turning up in joy or perhaps a quiet ‘mmm’ emitting from your lips. I paired this soup, which has a hint of spice, a touch of richness and incredible depth, with Kaleida’s debut album which also has richness, depth and layers of caressing tunes perfect for the moments of silence in your life.


Red Lentil Thai Curry Soup

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1/2 of a white onion, chopped
  • 1 celery stalk, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 2 tbsp of Peek’s Pantry red curry paste*
  • 1 cup of red lentils, picked over
  • 1 – 15 oz can of diced tomatoes
  • 4 cups of stock (or 4 cups of water and 2 bullion cubes)
  • 2 tbsp of fish sauce, divided
  • 1 – 15 oz can of coconut milk
  • Juice from 1 whole lime
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Heat a large pot over medium low heat. Add the olive oil, increase the heat to medium and a few seconds later add the onion, carrot and celery. Saute until starting to caramelize, about 7 minutes.
  2. Add the garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the two tablespoons of the curry paste and mix well to combine.
  3. Once this is fragrant, add the red lentils, diced tomatoes and stock. Simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
  4. Using an immersion blender or food processor, blend the entire pot until smooth. The texture will be slightly thick, similar to a standard pea soup consistency. Pourable and with some thickness to the texture.
  5. Return the pan to the same burner, which should still be warm but not hot. Do not reheat the soup. Pour the can of coconut milk in, add the lemon juice and stir well. Taste! If needed, add more salt and pepper to taste. I added about a 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper.

Notes

This has heat! If you don’t handle spice well, use 1 tbsp of the red curry paste.

I did not use the lite coconut milk, I wanted a soup that was just slightly rich enough to be especially warming during the winter months. Feel free to use lite coconut milk but know that the coconut may not come through as strong.

If you are in the Seattle area or visit, go to Little Uncle and buy their curry paste. It is the best I’ve had yet (haven’t been to Thailand yet!), complex, savory and creates incredible depth in each recipe I’ve used it in. If you don’t have access to it and are using the Thai Kitchen red curry paste, I’d experiment with adding 3 tbsp of the curry paste as well as lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and scallions.

Neither Little Uncle nor Peek’s Pantry supplied samples or paid me to mention them. Their food is delicious and thats the only reason I’ve mentioned both in this post.

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