Carrot and Lentil Soup with Toasted Almonds – healthy, delicious, French-style soup. Cooked carrots and lentils are blended in a blender to create a smooth, velvety soup. The combination of spices (cumin, coriander, nutmeg, chili, and, especially, the Cajun spice) create additional dimension to the soup. The soup has a well-balanced flavor – the sweetness of carrots is compensated by earthiness of lentils. The toasted sliced almonds sprinkled on top complete this soup perfectly!
I made this carrot and lentil soup with toasted almonds first time 2 years ago for Christmas, and it was an immediate hit with the family. Even those family members who did not like the idea of a “carrot and lentil soup” fell in love with it, finished their bowls and asked for seconds.
The special thing about this recipe is that it combines blended carrots and blended lentils together, thus creating a completely different flavor where usual sweetness of carrots is compensated by earthiness of lentils. The resulting carrot and lentil soup has a well-balanced flavor where you don’t even know that you’re eating carrots, and at the same time you do know you’re eating them: the carrots flavor becomes more subtle. The toasted sliced almonds sprinkled on top complete this soup perfectly! And if you’re a carrot lover – you’ll appreciate the difference in flavor lentils create. If you are not a carrot lover (like my husband) – you’ll love this lentil soup anyway, because of the flavor complexity the lentils, the spices, and the toasted almonds bring. And you’ll definitely love this soup if you’re a lentil lover.
Spices are very important in this recipe. Their combination(cumin, coriander, nutmeg, chilli, and, especially, the Cajun spice) creates additional dimension to the lentil soup. In my ingredients list, I emphasize that you could use anywhere from 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of Cajun spice – depends on how subtle you want Cajun spice be in your soup. Also, make sure to season the soup well, because with carrots and lentils, just the right amount of salt and pepper brings out all the right flavors. In my ingredients list, I put a minimum amount of salt (1/2 teaspoon) – feel free to adjust it up, the way you like it.
- 4 carrots
- 1/2 cup green lentils , dry
- water
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon chilli
- 1 teaspoon Cajun spice
- salt and pepper to taste
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Boil carrots in water until carrots soften and are thoroughly cooked. Bring 1/2 cup of lentils to boil in 2 cups of water, cook lentils until they are cooked. Add water if necessary. Reserve water from both cooking the carrots and lentils.
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When carrots and lentils are cooked, let them cool. When they are cooled, add carrots in 2 batches to blender. Add first batch of carrots plus 1/4 cup of reserved water from cooking carrots. You can also use regular water. Blend until carrots reach puree consistency. Do the same with the second batch of carrots. Put pureed carrots in a large pan.
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Add cooked lentils to the blender along with 1/2 cup of reserved water from cooking lentils. Blend until pureed. Add pureed lentils to pureed carrots in a pan. Add 1/2 cup half-and-half. Heat through without boiling. Add all spices, stirring constantly. Add at least 1/2 teaspoon Cajun spice. Taste to check the flavor. Add salt and pepper, adjust other spices if necessary, going especially generous with Cajun spice.
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Before serving, toast sliced almonds in the oven preheated to 350 F for about 5 minutes. Ladle soup in soup bowls. Sprinkle with toasted sliced almonds on top. Grind black pepper over the soup.
Would this work with with red lentils do you think? That is what I happen to have so I was just wondering 🙂
Yes, red lentils will work here! I made this soup with green and yellow lentils and both worked fine, so don’t see any reason for red lentils not to work. In fact, red lentils get even mushier than any other lentils, according to this article, so this is perfect for this soup!
Made this tonight! Delish! A bit spicy but not bad, my toddler ate some too!
Glad you liked it! 🙂 Wow, even the toddler ate it, with the spice?! 🙂 What a good toddler you have! 🙂 He will grow up to be an adventurous eater!
Just curious, why do the lentils and carrots need to cool? Does this do anything for their flavor when combined or just makes it safer to handle?
I cool them so they are safer to handle. It will not affect the flavor whether you cool the lentils and carrots or not. You might have a very hot splash out of your food processor though if you use hot liquids. 🙂 It did happen to me once.
Hi Julia- I am dying to try this recipe with my family- is the chilli mentioned chili powder? Help! Thanks- Julia H.
Yes, it’s chilli powder. You can add more than 1/8 teaspoon if you like it spicier.
I love how this sounds. But what is Cajun Seasoning?
and how does it reheat?
Thanks
Laura, Cajun seasoning is usually paprika, garlic, onion, red pepper, etc. It reheats fine, it’s just a dried powdered seasoning. Here is the link to one: http://www.myspicesage.com/cajun-seasoning-p-71.html?cPath=1_46
Thanks for the info on the cajun spice.
I meant to say how does the soup reheat, Sorry I was tying with only half a brain.
It reheats just fine, it might be a little thick – I added a touch of milk next day to thin it up. With soups like that I always like the flavors better the next day.
I’ve never tried carrot soup, but this looks delicious!! Maybe I will just have to give it a try 🙂
Absolutely! I’ve never had carrot soup until 2 years ago either :), didn’t even think I’ll like it, but it’s very tasty, one of my all time favorites.
I used to eat lentils a while ago as a protein source, but haven’t tried them in any REAL recipes. This looks way more appetizing!
I love lentils and use them all the time as side dish. They’re great, especially in soups, pureed or not.
Mmmm. Love carrots, love lentils, and I love your bowl!
Thank you. 🙂
This soup is making me salivate! I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with Lentils before!
Love the bowl- it’s the perfect color to compliment the soup.
Thank you. You’re right about the bowl – I didn’t have a white bowl, and my other bowls were of orange color, which made the soup and the bowl look like one. So the green one was a good alternative to emphasize the soup color!