Red Lentil Soup with Butternut Squash & Crispy Chicken

Red Lentil Soup with Butternut Squash & Crispy Chicken

This recipe was inspired by Ottolenghi's Mulligatawny in the Guardian last weekend. The image of the soup was gorgeous and as I read the ingredients I was instantly interested (as I usually am with all of his recipes) I really edited the recipe so much I don't know if it's even close to a real Mulligatawny (a classic Indian soup that means "pepper water") However, we really loved a simple getaway from our usual kitchen flavors, we hope you feel the same! There are quite a few spices used in this recipe, don't be discouraged, just use whatever you have on hand and double the quantity of spices you prefer over others.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups shredded chicken
• 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup unsweetend coconut milk
• 2 bags of cubed butternut squash, or one large fresh squash
• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 teaspoon ground cinammon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon curry
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 dash of cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped, for topping
• juice of one lime, for topping
• chopped peanuts, for topping

Directions:

1. When I made this recipe I had my shredded chicken already prepped from early in the week. The way I do my shredded chicken is put breasts in crockpot, no liqud, then cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours. Done! You can also prepare your chicken any way you prefer.

2. To get started on the soup base, add your coconut oil to the pan. Then add your red onion and garlic and saute until tender. Then add your 2 cans of diced tomatoes, chicken broth, butternut squash, turmeric, curry, cinammon, nutmeg, dash of cayenne, cardamom, cumin, paprika, black pepper, coriander, and kosher salt. Please feel free to add more or less of some of these dry ingredients, any combination of whatever you have on hand will be great. Bring all of this to a bubble, then reduce to a simmer and add your lentils and coconut milk. Cook on mediium low for about 25-30 minutes, until lentils and squash is tender.

3. In a skillet heat 1 more tablespoon of coconut oil and heat to medium high. Then add your shredded chicken, you want the chicken to sizzle right away so it gets crispy. At this point I added some additional dried paprika, cumin and garlic powder to these pieces for some extra color and flavor. Heat chicken until crispy.

4. Then to serve, ladle soup into bowls. Top with crispy chicken pieces, fresh cilantro, and peanuts. On my leftovers I put the soup over greens and added feta (no peanuts on this version), it was also delicious.