Name: Tomato and red lentil soup
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 200 g Red lentils (dried); 1 pack Chopped tomatoes (tinned); 20 g Onion (dried, flakes); 5 g Cumin (ground); 5 g Smoked paprika; 10 g Vegetable stock cubes; 35 ml Olive oil; 20 ml Lemon juice (bottled); 4 g Salt (fine)

Tomato and red lentil soup

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 6 months, set by Olive oil.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves

Burners

Pans

Water

1.2 L

Active

10 min

Total

35 min

Ingredients

Red lentils collapse completely into a soup with no blending, which is why this works without a machine. Twenty-five minutes and it is smooth on its own.

Rinse the lentils. Into the pan with 1 litre of water, the stock cube and the cumin. Boil, then simmer 20 minutes until they have gone entirely.
Tomatoes in. Another 5 minutes.
Salt to taste, then the lemon juice off the heat.
In a mug or the corner of the pan, heat the oil until it shimmers and add the smoked paprika for ten seconds only: it scorches faster than any other spice here. Pour it over the soup in a stripe.

Do not stir the paprika oil in. The stripe of red on the surface is how the dish is served, and each spoonful takes a different amount.

Serves 4.

What this was adapted from

Turkish mercimek çorbası: the everyday red lentil soup finished with acid and paprika butter

butter bloomed with paprika to finish → olive oil bloomed with smoked paprika

The signature of the original is a spoonful of paprika butter poured over at the table. Butter does not keep; olive oil carries the paprika just as well and the smoked version adds a char note the sweet paprika would not.
fresh lemon wedges at the table → bottled lemon juice stirred in off the heat

The acid at the end is not a garnish in this soup, it is structural. Bottled juice is consistent and keeps, and stirring it through rather than squeezing at the table means nobody skips it.