You can buy ground spices if you'd like. However, buying them whole and grinding them yourself will give you stronger, fresher flavours.
Servers 6 people
Ingredients
Spices
- 1 tsp black peppercorns, ground
- 1 tsp cumin seed, ground
- 1 tsp mustard seed, whole
- 1 tsp red pepper, ground
- 1 tsp of turmeric, ground
- 1 tsp of coriander seed, ground
- 1 cinnamon stick, whole
- 3 cloves, whole
- 4 green cardamoms, whole
- 1 tsp of black caraway seeds, whole (optional)
- 1/2 tsp of curry powder
Soup
- 1/2 cup of yellow split peas
- 3 tbsp of ghee (clarified butter) or regular butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 inch piece of ginger, minced or grated
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 parsley roots (or parsnips if you can't find this), diced
- 3 tbsp of all purpose flour
- 2 potatoes, cubed
- 6 cups of vegetable of chicken broth
- 1/2 cup of coconut milk
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 large handful of fresh cilantro
Step 1: Cooking the yellow split peas
Rinse the split peas thoroughly under cold water. Place in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered for roughly 45 minutes until the split peas fall apart. Drain and set aside. You can begin the rest of the soup during this cooking time.
Step 2: The spices and soup base
Mix all the spices in a small bowl.
Melt the ghee or butter in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger, and onions and cook for roughly 5 minutes, until the onions have softened. Add the carrots and parsley root (or parsnip) and cook for another 5 minutes.Add your spice mix and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.
Add the flour and mix and cook thoroughly for 2 minutes. You've just created a roux which will help thicken your soup and give it more texture. Slowly add your broth to the saucepan, stirring constantly.
Keep stirring while bringing the broth to a boil. To quicken this process, you can always boil your broth separately before using it. A whisk is quite helpful as well at this point. Once your broth starts boiling, you'll notice that it will thicken as well.
Add your potatoes, lower the heat and cover the pan. Simmer until tender, around 15 minutes. Fish out and remove the cloves, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. You can always leave them in, but your guests may not appreciate biting into something hard when eating the soup. Add the split peas, coconut milk and lemon juice.
Heat through. When ready to serve, add the cilantro. If you add the cilantro too early, it will lose all of it's brightness and freshness.
Serve hot with fresh naan bread and a wedge of lemon per bowl.
