Curried Harvest Gold Lentil Soup – Harvest Gold Lentils “a treasure of Montana Sunshine in every package”
While searching for red lentils, I noticed a bulk food bin filled with yellow lentils. Its sign read “Harvest Gold Lentils.” With such a great name, I for sure wanted to try them. Plus, I noticed that they’re organically grown right here 
in Montana’s Golden Triangle. Nice. I had an idea of what I would make with them, so I bought a pound of these beauties. And then bought 2 pounds of earthy-sweet, purple-skinned, white-fleshed Japanese sweet potatoes. The next day we enjoyed bowls of fragrant, tasty and chunky Curried Harvest Gold Lentil Soup with Japanese Sweet Potatoes for both our lunch and dinner.
Deeply flavored, rich and filling
Curried Harvest Gold Lentil Soup is a golden version of one of my all-time favorite soup recipes, Curried Red Lentil & Sweet Potato Soup. In just 90 minutes, both of these soups become a filling and immensely satisfying pot of soup. Every bite bringing a sigh of delight. Plus, the spices make your kitchen wonderfully aromatic.
Timeless Food
Timeless Natural Food describes itself as made up of dozens of organic family farmers throughout Montana and the surrounding region. They grow heirloom organic lentils, chickpeas and specialty grains in a timeless fashion.
Their website features excellent lentil information sheets. Everything from little known facts about lentils, to nutritional information, to recipes. Along with a how-to-guide for choosing the best variety of lentils for each of your lentil recipes from soups to salads and everything in between.
Curried Harvest Gold Lentil Soup with Japanese Sweet Potatoes
Chunky, creamy, deeply flavored, sweet and earthy, wonderfully fragrant with spice.
Plus, with quick cooking Harvest Gold Lentils, you’ll have a steaming, satisfying pot of golden-hued soup ready to enjoy in about 90 minutes. Vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free.
Makes 14 cups Printer-Friendly Recipe
Active time 30 minutes
Total time about 90 minutes
Ingredients
2 ½ tablespoons coconut or olive oil
1 large onion, ¼-inch diced (rounded 2 cups)
2-inch piece fresh ginger, finely minced (about ¼ cup)
3 large cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed with a garlic press
2 tablespoons curry powder or a mixture of curry powders*
1 teaspoon Garam Masala**
1 ½ teaspoons fennel seeds
Dozen twists freshly ground black pepper
9 ½ cups water, divided
2 bay leaves
2 pounds Japanese sweet potatoes (peeled or not), ½-inch diced and stored in water to keep them from browning
1½ cups (10 ½ ounces) Harvest Gold lentils
4 teaspoons sea salt
Garnish
Thinly sliced scallions
Coarsely chopped cilantro
A swirl of yogurt, optional
Instructions
- Heat a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the oil and then the onion. Cover the pan and cook 8 minutes. Uncover the pot and cook another 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and beginning to color.
- Stir in the minced ginger and garlic. After 30 seconds
stir in the curry powder(s), garam masala, fennel and pepper. Cook 30 seconds until fragrant. - Add the well-drained, diced sweet potatoes, stirring to coat them with the spices.
- Wash and drain the lentils just before you use them as they mercilessly stick together within seconds of being rinsed. Add the drained lentils to the pot along with 9 cups of water and the bay leaves. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat so that the soup simmers. Cook it partially covered for 20 minutes. Stir in the sea salt. Cook another 5 minutes until the lentils and potatoes are soft.
For a chunky soup, use a blender to purée 3-4 cups of the soup and return it to the pot. Purée all of the soup if you prefer it completely creamy. Blend the remaining ½ cup of water to clean the soup still on the sides of the blender jar. Stir this into the soup pot.- Adjust the salt and pepper to taste. Serve Curried Harvest Gold Lentil Soup with Japanese Sweet Potatoes garnished with thinly sliced scallions, coarsely chopped cilantro and perhaps an optional swirl of yogurt.
* I use a mixture of three different curry powders from Penzey’s Spices. 1 tablespoon Sweet Curry, 1½ teaspoons Hot Curry and 1½ teaspoons Maharaj Curry.
** Garam Masala is a blend of coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, kalonji, caraway, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.
What a wonderfully delicious recipe! Two and three days later it just kept getting better and better. I was fortunate in that I had already made the yogurt lime cardoman dressing for the wonderful delicata squash recipe. I also had the toasted pumpkin seeds from that recipe. Added both to the soup, which were lovely additions.
Thank you, MB, such creative and delicious additions to this soup. I’m going to give them a try myself. Here’s the Roasted Winter Squash Recipe with Ginger Tomatoes and Lime Yogurt–so others can enjoy your additions, too.