Red Lentil Soup with Lemon Mint Yogurt

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, tomato paste, and salt to melted butter. Cook, stirring often, until onion softens and tomato paste turns a deep brick red or brown color, 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Add garlic, cumin, and cayenne pepper; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in broth and bring to a boil. Stir in lentils, celery, and carrot. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils and vegetables are very tender, 30 to 40 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, make lemon-mint yogurt: Grind mint and salt in a mortar and pestle to a paste. Add yogurt, lemon juice, and zest; stir together until combined. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

4. Taste soup for seasoning. Use an immersion blender to purée about 1/2 of the soup to achieve a creamier texture. Serve hot with spoonfuls of lemon-mint yogurt.

   

Chef's Notes:

To make this dish vegan, use olive oil instead of butter, vegetable broth instead of chicken, and plant-based yogurt instead of Greek yogurt.

Other varieties of lentils will work.

If making the soup ahead, blanching the mint for a few seconds in boiling water and then shocking it in ice water will help retain its green color when mixed into the yogurt.

Crumbled feta cheese is a nice substitution if you're not into yogurt.