Today we were in the mood for soup again. Yesterday I was looking for something and came across this Asian lentil/potato soup, and we decided to try it. It wasn't that difficult and was very delicious. Here's what goes into it (you can also see this in the first picture):

  • Sweet potatoes (we had about 750g)
  • Regular potatoes (we had 5 small ones, that had to suffice)
  • Two carrots
  • One mango
  • Fresh ginger (we had two small pieces, could have been more)
  • Lentils (we had brown lentils, about 200g)
  • Vegetable broth (about 1.5 liters)
  • One can of coconut milk (400ml)
  • Spices (pepper, salt, turmeric, cumin, chili flakes, nutmeg, cloves)

Preparation is also quite simple, it's just a soup:

  1. Cube both types of potatoes, the sweet potatoes about twice as large as the regular potatoes (sweet potatoes cook faster and otherwise become mushy)
  2. Chop the carrots
  3. Chop the onions
  4. Peel the ginger
  5. Sauté the onions in oil until translucent
  6. Add both types of potatoes and sweat them (let them sit for a while until they release moisture)
  7. Pour the vegetable broth over
  8. Stir in the coconut milk (don't be surprised, it's partly quite solid)
  9. Add the carrots
  10. Add the lentils (if they are very hard and need to cook for a long time - pre-cook the lentils, ours were still quite hard)
  11. Grate the ginger over the soup (a cheese grater works well for this)
  12. Add all the spices to taste
  13. Let the whole thing simmer for about 20-25 minutes
  14. Remove some of the soup (especially sweet potatoes and regular potatoes) - about 1/2 liter - and puree and mix back in. This makes it nicely creamy.
  15. Peel the mango, cut it into small pieces, and add it to the soup
  16. Sprinkle nutmeg over the soup
  17. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes
  18. Serve (we had Scottish spiced bread with it)

The whole thing was very filling and very delicious. Quite spicy for our standards because of the chili flakes. But a very interesting flavor combination.