Ramadan noms 1: Aussiebarian Moroccan Spiced Tomato and Lentil Soup

It's Ramadan. And I saw an acquaintance had cooked up Harira, this delicious looking soup, and had to try it. But I was too lazy to bother with following a recipe and didn't know if we had the right spices, so this is what we ended up with, and we both liked it :)

Behold, Aussiebarian spiced tomato and lentil soup :)

Ingredients (serves 4)

1tsp coriander powder

1/2tsp cardamom powder

1.5tsp cinnamon powder

1tsp turmeric powder

2tsp cumin powder

1tbsp vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1 onion, finely minced

2tsp grated ginger

4 large tomatoes, as finely chopped as possible

1/2 carrot, finely chopped (about a cup or so)

1/2 small green capsicum, finely chopped

1/2 sachet tomato paste

1 cup red lentils

4 cups of water (or more if required)

Salt, 2 heaped tsp or so

Pepper, 1-2 tsp or so

Method

1. Mix all the dry spices and add the to a hot large saucepan. Dry fry them for a couple of minutes.

2. Add the onion and garlic and vegetable oil and brown. Mix well with the spices and after a minute or two add some water if it smells like burning :)

3. Add all the veggies and the ginger and another 1/2 cup of water, simmer for 3-5 minutes.

4. Add tomato paste and 2 cups of water. Stir everything well then add the lentils, salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and then reduce to simmer for 30-45 minutes or until it looks ready.

5. Keep covered and serve when it's dinner time!

Notes: 

1. it looks like I do a lot of chopping but... I don't. I have a little Tupperware chopper (thanks mum!) that does most of the heavy lifting.

2. I was making little dumplings (vipopoo) so I chucked a handful in for fun.

3. If you have a non-stick pan you could probably omit the oil if you wanted to. But our saucepan catches every. Single. Time.

4. Most of our cooking successes seem to be flukes. It's basically a once only test kitchen, in Women's Weekly terms. So we can't accept any responsibility for things that don't work ;)

Enjoy!