Lovely Lemon Lentil

November is real dark at my place (thanks, time change). I don’t mean in the spooky way, I mean – there’s no sun. Like, all day. While contemplating a big batch for lunch this week, I decided some Indian-influenced citrus lentil soup was the simple solution for the lack of yellow in my life. Color = good.

There are a great many yellow ingredients in this soup – the spices on the right include curry, turmeric, and saffron – yep, those red crocus threads turn anything in water bright yellow. Dumped all this into the InstaPot, hit the high pressure button and let it do its thing while I caught up on Jack Ryan on Amazon. 8 minutes later I blast it with a stick blender and get this lovely soup, to which I added some fresh lemon and some cayenne.

Since I don’t use a lot of salt in my recipes, I have to lean hard on spices to get good flavor. Lentils don’t taste like much, but you add lemon and curry power, and things get interesting. This soup tastes better the longer it sits too. Plus, its beans (lentils), so you know, I’m sorta into that. 100% plant based, cheap, filling, and weird-colored for novelty.