How to cook: Indian lentil soup

I am not a soup person. I know people that cannot imagine meal without having soup before, but as for me, it always makes me full and I simply can't have anything else. I usually make one as a main course, my favourites are broccoli cream soup, peas cream soup, classic broth with noodles, garlic soup (also known as after party dish) and this one. Local Indian restaurant has the possibility of lunch menu in the form of a raut/banquet/all-you-can-eat for really low price and the good thing about it is, that there is always soup, three different dishes, four side dishes and an appetiser (I love onion bhajis and I would never find out without this option!), which allows you to try something you haven't tried before and yet you don't risk getting something you dislike and paying full price for it. Anyway, I fell in love with many things from the menu and I love to make Indian evening for my pals (appetiser, soup, main course). But as for the lentil soup, I love it even separately!


What you need:
1 small onion,
4-6 cloves of garlic,
two spoons of  oil,
spoon of flour,
2 handfuls of lentils (either red or normal, but you have to let them soak with water for at least two hours before cooking),
curry spice mix or curry paste (depends on your taste, the pastes are divided according to hotness, it is enough to get the mild one),
salt, pepper, chilli, water!

What you do: Chop the onion finely, pour the oil into a pan, wait till it's hot and throw in the chopped onion. Check on it once in a while and stir. After few minutes (when the onion starts turning gold), process the garlic cloves through the press and let them join the onion. When everything turns brownish, add the flour, stir a bit and pour hot water (2/3 of the pot you're using). Then add the lentils, salt and let it boil for like 20-25 minutes. When the time passes, try if the lentils are soft and boiled. Spice it up! I always use different amounts, sometimes I even add soy sauce or Worchester or something like that (the sou is also great for hangovers!). You may or may not use blender or hand blender to make the soup smoother. And that's about it. You can also use a coconut milk if you have some, it adds extra flavour chord but it works fine without it.

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