Black Lentil Soup

Black lentils are something I often feel 'meh' about, but I really love this soup! Based on reviews, I made a few changes. I did not drain the lentils. I cooked them for 10 minutes in 2 cups of water (with the ginger and cardamom as directed). That left them barely covered in what became lovely lentil broth. While the lentils cooked, I sauteed the onions, garlic, ginger, added the spices when/as directed in a seperate pan. And then combined it all (with tomatoes and stock) back into the pot with the parboiled lentils. Important change: I also only added 1 quart of stock. 2 quarts would have been nuts! My lentils also cooked really fast compared to what the recipe said (20 minutes, not 1 hour), so maybe the 2 quarts would have reduced, but my lentils cooked so fast there wasn't time for the liquid to reduce by much at all. Anyway, flavor profile on this is excellent and made me love black lentils, so it gets 5 stars.

I went like one half on the liquid and it was great. I'd definitely suggest lowering the volume of broth/stock.

Although it is delicious, the proportions seem out of whack here. Two quarts of stock for a yield of four portions? I began with 6 cups of stock rather than the 8 called for in two quarts. Even the 6 cups seemed to make this soup a little watery. It never thickened much, as the recipe says it should after one hour of simmering. I also found step 1 odd, why drain the lovely black liquid left after you've parboiled the lentils with the ginger? Why not include it in the soup itself? I think if I make this again, and I may, I'd eliminate step one altogether, to include the one inch piece of ginger, and just go on from step two. Then the mix could either cook in the hour given in the recipe, or be put into the slow cooker for a number of hours. I also added two cups of minced, cooked chicken at the end and this really made for a delicious supper dish. Very tasty, just that the recipe needs a bit of reworking regarding portions.

I’ve been making black lentils for years and this is the best recipe I’ve ever made! It is especially savory even though there is no meat. I highly recommend this!

This is the one my husband liked the best of the three recipes I've tried. Going to make it this week again. I didn't change anything except I cooked it in the Instant Pot pressure cooker for 20 min instead of stovetop.

I love this recipe.  I buy  locally grown (Canadian) black lentils and add swiss chard.  Mine is more like a dahl. Yum!