Spiced Up Carrot and Lentil Soup

Wow!  Those carrots look so healthy!

This soup was on my list of recipes to try.  Easy to make and very good.  I did make a few small changes, more salt and an additional carrot since medium is open to interpretation.  Also my Cajun seasoning mix had only half the amount of pepper.  Smooth soups are not my favorite so I would add some bulk Italian sausage to this soup, browned and patted dry to absorb any excess grease and then added to the finished soup.  No more than half a pound as this recipe makes just four servings.  The original recipe is here, with some lovely pictures.

Spiced Up Carrot and Lentil Soup adapted from Julia’s Album

• 4-5 medium carrots
• 1/2 cup dry green lentils
• water
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning*
• salt and pepper to taste

1)  Boil carrots in water until carrots soft and thoroughly cooked.   Bring lentils to a boil in 2 cups of water, cook until they soft, add more water if needed.  Reserve cooking water from both carrots and lentils.

2)  Let carrots and lentils cool. When 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. Repeat with second batch of carrots. Add pureed carrots ito a large pan.

3)  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. 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 flavor. Add salt and pepper, adjust other spices if necessary, being especially generous with Cajun spice.

4)  Toast sliced almonds in the oven preheated to 350 for about 5 minutes. Ladle soup in soup bowls. Sprinkle with toasted sliced almonds. Grind black pepper over the soup and serve.

*I added 1 teaspoon and used this recipe: 

Cajun Seasoning Mix adapted from Food(dot)com

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon celery salt 

Mix all ingredients together and store in a small jar.  The original recipe is here and you can see that it called for white pepper which I did not have and given that I don't care for too much spice, I am glad I left it out!