Coconut Sweet Potato Lentil Soup with Rice
It’s no secret that I love soup. I mean, most of the recipes on the blog at this point are soups. And here’s another!
I’ll eat soup at any time of year, but I always hit a little bit of seasonal depression at the tail end of winter, and I especially love it then. (So… right this very second.) But I’ve also found that standing over a single pot to cook dinner feels like less of a brain drain on a work night than meat + veggie + side dish. And I love that I can turn a pile of vegetables into something I feel good about eating, since, as it turns out, once you give your body the amount of fresh produce it actually requires, it gets very annoyed when you stop doing that. (Another veggie-packed option? Corn + Shrimp Chowder.)
This recipe is adapted from Half Baked Harvest, and it’s a big favorite around here. After sharing it a few times with friends with a long “and here are the changes I make” note, I figured it was about time to type it up and share it my way.
This soup is such a great choice for a night when you want a bowl of something warm, but also healthy and nourishing. Sweet potatoes! Ginger! Curry powder! What’s not to love? I’ll admit that I tend to throw frozen spinach into just about everything (sneaky greens are my favorite greens), but it works so well here.
This year I resolved to make 2 vegetarian dinners every week, and this recipe doesn’t even feel like trying. It’s just so good and filling. You won’t miss the meat, I promise.
I recently took bowls of this over to some neighbors recovering from Covid, and it was such a hit that I bumped it up in my list of recipes to publish. (Today I’m pretending I have an actual plan for this blog. Ha!)
So, without further ado:
Coconut Sweet Potato Lentil Soup with Rice
INGREDIENTS
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, grated (or 1 Tablespoon ginger paste)
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 Tablespoons yellow curry powder
½ teaspoon EACH cayenne pepper and coriander
5 cups vegetable broth
2 teaspoons salt (more or less to taste)
1 cup dried lentils
14 ounce can coconut milk
1 cup frozen spinach
2 cups cooked rice
⅓ cup cilantro, plus more for serving
DIRECTIONS:
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, add onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, and sweet potatoes and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the curry powder, cayenne, and coriander and cook another minute until everything is coated.
Add the broth and lentils and season with salt. Bring the to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer 12-15 minutes, until the lentils are soft and the sweet potatoes are fork-tender.
Stir in the coconut milk and spinach, and cook another 5 minutes until the spinach is wilted. Taste for salt and adjust as needed. Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro.
Serve with rice, garnished with additional cilantro.
Store leftover rice separate from the soup. It’s great the next day!
