Spinach Lentil Soup ~ Palak Moong Soup

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Spinach is a kind of wonder food, and you may find it surprising to know that it has some amazing and unusual health benefits. By eating spinach you can protect yourself against osteoporosis, heart disease, colon cancer and arthritis among other things. I have always associated carrots as being beneficial for good eyesight, so it came as somewhat of a surprise to me, to learn that spinach and other greens like kale and broccoli contain Lutein, something that protects against eye diseases such as age related macular degeneration and cataract. Of course spinach is also a great source of iron, folate, magnesium,potassium and fiber making this a very difficult to ignore vegetable, and a must have in any healthy diet.

I try and include this wonder food as often as possible in our diet. In addition to a variety of curries, I also make a lot of soups with spinach in them, one of which is this spinach lentil soup. The combination of lentils and spinach makes this well balanced and the lentils add a touch of creaminess to this soup that makes the need for cream redundant. This soup tastes good with or without the garnish and its vibrant color makes it an inviting addition to the dinner table :-)

Before moving on to the recipe, a gentle reminder to my readers, if any more of you have planned to send in soup entries for the soup event, the last day for it is just around the corner, so request you all to send those in soon.




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Ingredients and Method to make Spinach Lentil Soup
1 onion cut fine
1/2 cup split mung lentil (yellow moong dhal)
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 dry red chillies (or to taste)
9 oz /(225 gms)/ 1 pkt of spinach leaves cut into halves or quarters (see notes)

Optional garnish
Few drops of lemon juice per serving
crushed black pepper
croutons

Rinse and drain mung lentil (dhal). Place mung lentil either in a microwave safe container or a shallow glass dish, add sufficient water to up to 1/2 an inch above the lentils. Place in microwave and cook on high in two minute increments until the lentils are soft and mushy. Stir and add water in between as required.


Alternatively place lentils in a heavy bottomed pan with enough water and cook on stove top until soft and mushy, stirring frequently and adding water as required. Or place the lentils in a container with sufficient water, place in pressure cooker and cook until soft, usually for me that is about 2 to 3 whistles. (This time I used the microwave)

Keep lentils aside, retain water if any too.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds and when it splutters add dry red chillies.

Stir the dry red chillies a couple of times, then add onions and saute until onions are transparent.

Now add spinach, salt to taste and sprinkle a little water, keep the pan covered with a lid and allow spinach to cook. This takes a few minutes. Remove from heat and allow the spinach to cool to room temperature.

Place the spinach and onion in a blender and blend/ grind into a puree.

Remove and keep in a large bowl.

Puree the half the cooked lentils in the same blender and add to the pureed spinach.

Mash balance of lentils and add to pureed spinach+ pureed lentil mixture.

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Place soup in heavy bottomed pan and place on low heat until the soup is hot. Serve hot with garnish of choice and some crusty bread or vegetable sandwich.

Serves 2 to 3

Notes

I mashed half the lentils and pureed half the lentils because I wanted the soup to have some texture. You can just as easily puree the entire cooked lentils for a more smoother feel to the soup.

I garnished my soup with lemon juice, crushed pepper and croutons, but even without the garnishes this soup tastes good.

In case you have very tender spinach leaves you can add them whole, cook them and then puree them, you do not need to cut it in that case.

This soup is off to the Healthy Inspirations Event- Soups going on here.....