Coconut Red Lentil Soup (Esalen Ayurvedic Dal)
A vibrant red lentil soup (or stew) that is always hugely popular. A friend turned me onto this Ayurvedic dal recipe from the Esalen Cookbook years ago. Red lentil based, curry-spiced coconut broth with back notes of ginger and tomato, with slivered green onions, and a finish of cilantro or kale.
Let's talk through the story of my favorite red lentil soup. Years ago, two of my neighbors hosted a soup party. It was an inspiring affair - big pots of simmering soups and stews, house full of chatty, friendly people. Part of what I liked was the simple premise. The hosts (David & Holly) made a number of soups, guests were asked to arrive with their drink of choice and one thing to share - salad, appetizer, or something sweet.
The Inspiration:
One of the vegetarian soups that night was a beautiful shade of yellow-orange. It was a light-bodied, curry-spiced coconut broth thickened with cooked red lentils and structured with yellow split peas. It appeared to be a beautiful take on lentil soup. When I asked Holly to tell me about it, she mentioned it was based on an Ayurvedic dal recipe in the Esalen Cookbook, a favorite of hers. I suspect that recipe might have been inspired by the Bengali-style cholar dal where you see chana dal punctuated with raisins in many preparations.
Holly happened to have an extra copy of the Esalen book, and sent me home with my belly full, a new cookbook tucked under my arm, and a few suggestions related to the soup. I still make this soup regularly, love it (so much!), and thought it might be fun to revisit it today in video form - enjoy! I've also included some notes related to adapting this soup to the Instant Pot.
What Makes this so Special?
The method used to bring this soup together caught my attention. While your lentils are boiling, you saute lots of scallions in butter (or ghee, coconut oil, or olive oil) in another pan. Add to those scallions a fat dollop of thick tomato paste along with plenty of toasted spices and you're on your way. This flavor bomb is what you stir into the lentil base. Golden raisins plump up with curry broth. There are beautiful back notes of ginger, and depth from that tomato paste. It all comes together in one amazing bowl of restorative, lentil soup goodness. To be honest, I consider the raisins optional and make this often without - or sometimes I swap in some chopped dates.
Topping Ideas:
I've cooked this soup countless times over the years and tend to finish it with what I have on hand. The original recipe has you go big on cilantro. But you can see in these photos I sometimes pile it high with extra scallions and freshly-baked kale chips. Other ideas:
- finish with a few big handfuls of finely shredded green cabbage
- stir in a few big handfuls of chopped kale
- fry 30-40 fresh curry leaves in a few tablespoons of oil adding some chile flakes (or torn chiles), mustard seeds and cumin seeds in the last 15 seconds or so. Pour generously over each bowl
- finish with deeply roasted tomatoes and omit the raisins
A Variation
There was one variation that I noted after cooking this because it stuck out to me as particularly delicious. I was out of scallions and ginger but still wanted to make something along these lines. Instead I used a strong paste made of chopped garlic and serrano peppers - probably a 50/50 blend. I added a few tablespoons of the mixture in place of the scallions in the recipe. The end result was feisty, strong and really wonderful.
More Lentil Soup Recipes
- Nine Great Lentil Soups
- Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter
- Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
- Lively Up Yourself Lentil Soup
- Curried Tomato Tortellini Soup (with lentils)
- Coconut Yellow Split Pea Soup
- Vegetarian Split Pea Soup
- all soup recipes
I hope you enjoy this as much as we have over the last decade or so! Here's where you can find all the soup recipes, if you want to explore more. And there are lots of lentil recipes in the archives as well.
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Coconut Red Lentil Soup (Esalen Ayurvedic Dal)
See the photo in the main entry if you aren't sure what type of lentils and split peas to buy. For those of you who are curious, I used the Terre Exotique Madras Curry Powder I picked up in Paris - it looks like it is available here now too (I think I've come across it on Amazon's grocery section). Vegans - you can easily make this vegan by using coconut or olive oil in place of the butter called for.
- 1 cup / 7 oz / 200g yellow split peas
- 1 cup / 7 oz / 200g red split lentils (masoor dal)
- 7 cups / 1.6 liters water
- 1 medium carrot, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 2 tablespoons fresh peeled and minced ginger
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 2 tablespoons butter, ghee, olive oil or coconut oil
- 8 green onions or scallions, thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons golden raisins (optional)
- 1/3 cup / 80 ml tomato paste
- 1 14- ounce can coconut milk (or less)
- 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, plus more to taste
- one small handful chopped cilantro (and/or lots of kale chips)
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Give the split peas and lentils a good rinse - until they no longer put off murky water. Place them in an extra-large soup pot, cover with the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the carrot and 1/4 of the ginger. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the split peas are soft.
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In the meantime, in a small dry skillet or saucepan over low heat, toast the curry powder until it is quite fragrant. Be careful though, you don't want to burn the curry powder, just toast it a bit. Set aside. Place the butter in a pan over medium heat, add half of the green onions, the remaining ginger, and raisins (if using). Saute for two minutes stirring constantly, then add the tomato paste and saute for another minute or two more.
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Add the toasted curry powder to the tomato paste mixture, mix well, and then add this to the simmering soup along with a splash of coconut milk and salt. Add more coconut milk if you want it creamier.
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Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or so. The texture should thicken up, but you can play around with the consistency by adding more water (or coconut milk), a bit at a time, if you like. You can keep it more brothy and soup or stew-like, or simmer longer for a thicker consistency - more like many of the dals I've had. The thicker this gets, the more I like it, and it's extra great the day or two after cooking.
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Sprinkle each bowl generously with cilantro (or lots of kale chips) and the remaining green onions.
Instant Pot variation: For Instant Pot users, one of you (thanks Andrea!) just wrote to me and said this soup works great in the IP: saute the spice, onions, tomato paste, ginger, and raisins. Add the lentils, split, peas, ginger, carrot and water and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes with a natural release. Then, I add the coconut milk.
This recipe has been adapted over the years from the 2006 edition of the Esalen Cookbook. The version you see here (along with relevent notes) is how I tend to make it circa 2023.
Related Recipes
Nine Great Lentil Soups to Choose From
Absolutely everyone needs a great lentil soup in their cooking repertoire. Here's a selection of some of the best.
Green Lentil Soup with Curried Brown Butter
A favorite green lentil soup topped with a curried brown butter drizzle, and pan-fried paneer cubes.
Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
An earthy, turmeric and mustard-spiked lentil soup served over brown rice with spinach and thick yogurt.
Coconut Yellow Split Pea Soup
Yellow split peas incorporated into a ginger-spiked yellow coconut curry broth (lots of turmeric) - cherry tomatoes, chive oil, seeds, micro greens. The best kind of working lunch.
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Comments
No split peas in the cupboard - what are your thoughts on just doubling up the lentils?
I made this yesterday and it is wonderful. Can't wait to feed it to 20 month old grandson who likes his food to have flavor.Thank you very much.
also, I added some frozen green peas to mine. I'm sure in san fran fresh peas are in sight and would be awesome in this soup (frozen peas were good too)
I made this last night - it was so delicious and perfect. I was already looking forward to lunch when I packed up leftovers after dinner - but this morning I was in a rush, and forgot to bring it. I even packed a little thing of green onions and cilantro separately - sad! I will be dreaming of it all day long.
I made this last night, Heidi, and it was fantastic. Only, we didn't have raisins, and we didn't have green onions. I used a regular yellow onion chopped in a fine dice and sauteed it before the tomato paste till it was translucent and sweet. I think the sweet oniony chunks made up for the raisins and the green onions, although I can't wait to try it the proper way soon. Best thing, my 10 year old daughter gobbled it up!
That TABLE. My god, that table. It seems to show its face in many photos around here. So beautiful, so trusting. Thanks for sharing another great recipe! Your taste in food is very interesting, yet very approachable.
Trying this one tonight, thanks.
I made this tonight, it is incredible and the kind of soup that can only get better the next day. I am so glad you posted this!
This looks so delicious...we're just heading into soup season down here in NZ so I am definitely going to try this recipe - it could well become my staple diet - thanks!
Our home smells heavenly, all four kids are clamoring - what are your making?! They cannot wait for dinner! Thank you for another amazing recipe.
Oh what a fun way to get together!
Coconut and curry, with lentils. Yum. I could curl up with a big bowl of this.
I just made this soup 1 hour ago and it is delicioso! I added 2 more carrots, a few more golden raisins and green onions - it was perfect, and I put it over farro. Yummy! Thanks Heidi. This recipe will be made again and again.
I cant wait to try this one!! Everytime you post a new recipe I get so excited! I am a big follower of your website and cookbooks!!!! You inspire me in my kitchen! Thank you!
Very good!!! I'm hungry! By
The recipe caught the eye of my palate, but what caught me on a deeper level is the beauty of the photograph accompanying this receipe. Less the food, and more the beautiful crack in the bowl and the crack on the table. Beauty in imperfection yields my favorite kind of perfection. Now, to gather ingredients to make said soup!
Never too many good lentil instructions! I've been absolutely hooked on Pierce St Lentil Chili this winter...but have managed a few others, too. This will definitely be on the menu soon! Thanks, Heidi.
Wow, that soup looks incredible! xo K
I love the idea of the soup party. It's a good idea any time of year, but especially during lent. And this soup looks like perfection!
What a fascinating mix of flavors! So...and, what did you take to the party?