Green Lentil Soup with Curried Coconut Oil

This recipe from 101 cookbooks was really good, and I'm not sure why; it was so simple.

Cooking curry powder in coconut oil and then mixing it with coconut milk produced some science-experiment-like results:

Besides using coconut oil instead of butter, I changed nothing about this recipe. It is so interesting, and so satisfying. It will definitely be my new go-to lentil soup recipe.

Green Lentil Soup with Curried Coconut Oil

(from 101 cookbooks)

Ingredients

2 TB coconut oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

5 1/2 c vegetable broth or water

*

1 1/2 c green lentils, picked over and rinsed

*

3 TB coconut oil

1 TB curry powder

1/2 c coconut milk

sea salt

Instructions

1. Combine the 2 TB coconut oil, onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a large soup pot over medium heat, stirring regularly, until the onions soften, a couple minutes. Add the vegetable broth and lentils and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender. This usually takes 20 to 30 minutes, but can take as long as 50 minutes.
2. In the meantime, warm the other 3 TB coconut oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and let it brown. When it starts to smell nutty and fragrant, stir in the curry powder and sauté until the spices are fragrant, less than a minute. When the lentils are finished cooking, remove from the heat, stir in the coconut milk and 1/4 tsp salt, and puree with an immersion blender. You can leave the soup a bit chunky if you like, or puree until it is perfectly smooth.
3. Stir in half of the spiced oil, taste, and add more salt, if needed, typically a couple of teaspoons if you used water instead of a salted broth. Serve drizzled with the remaining spice butter. Serves 4 to 6.