Menu
1. Rinse the red lentils and the rice. Put both in a pan, pour enough water to cover them by roughly 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower heat and simmer.
2. While simmering skim off any froth that rises to the surface.
3. When both rice and lentils are soft at roughly about 10-15 minutes into simmering, add the tomato paste (easier if first blended with some cooking liquid in a small bowl), salt and the chili flakes (save some for later). Cook for another 5 minutes or so.
4. Crush the garlic cloves and mix with lemon juice and stir into the soup. If you don’t like raw garlic, add the crushed garlic earlier into the soup.
5. Add half the mint into the soup and stir.
6. Garnish the individual bowls of served soup by sprinkling with the rest of the mint, chili flakes and the lemon zest.
7. Note: The soup is ready as is, but if you’d like you can run an immersion blender through the cooked soup, until it gets to a creamy consistency and serve it as a velvety creamy red lentil soup.
8. If made with sweet potatoes it is higher in beta-carotene, which is an immune booster!