Roasted + toasted

This Thai red lentil curry soup was made with roasted carrots, sautéed onions, and garnished with cilantro and toasted coconut. Love it when the carrots get all crispy and sweet and start to blacken a bit. Somehow it reminds me of a charred marshmallow. Having said that, the soup seemed a little on the sweet side, so I cut it with a judicious squeeze of lime. 

Here's how to make it. Relax, it's a soup, and you really don't need to measure anything. Trust your intuition! Roast a few carrots, dice when cool, and set aside. Sauté a diced onion, then add Thai red curry paste, coconut milk, chicken broth, and salt and pepper to your taste. Stir the pot, then add lentils and cook until it all comes to a boil, then simmer for only 5-10 more minutes. The lentils will keep cooking after you turn off the heat, and you don't want mushy lentils, now do you? Stir in the diced carrots, and voilà!... or however you say voilà in Thailand. Garnish with cilantro leaves and the aforementioned toasted coconut... Lime is optional. For a similar lentil soup groove, check out the Indian curry lentil soup I  made last year.