Golden Pumpkin Toor Dal Soup

Beautifully golden in color, this warming and spicy toor dal soup is partially blended until brothy and creamy with vibrant spicing and sweet fresh pumpkin. The finishing touch is a warming takra — a blend of whole spices, which can include sweetener and dried chilies and asafetida, cooked in hot oil or ghee over high heat briefly and then poured into the cooked soup. In this case it adds a pleasant and vibrant sweetness to the soup that balances the tartness from the addition of lemon juice. For a creamier soup, use less water and blend until most of the ingredients are broken down. Myself, I like a bit of texture to my soup, so I left some chunks of pumpkin as I didn't wish to fully purée it.

I served this with palak paneer for a special but essentially easy and certainly comforting meal.

Golden Pumpkin Toor Dal Soup

Recipe by Lisa Turner Adapted from Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking Cuisine: Indian Published on October 30, 2018 Warming, sweet and spicy golden toor dal and pumpkin soup Print this recipe Ingredients: 1 cup toor dal (split pigeon peas) 1 1/4 cup pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes 6 1/2 to 7 cups water 1-inch fresh ginger, peeled and minced 2 fresh red chilies, seeded and finely chopped 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, to taste 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 teaspoon smoked paprika 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 3 tablespoons ghee or oil 1 to 2 teaspoons sea salt, to taste 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds 1 or 2 dried whole red chilies 1 tablespoon coconut sugar 1/2 teaspoon asafetida small handful of dried curry leaves, crumbled 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced Instructions: Rinse the toor dal and soak in enough water to cover for 3 hours. Drain and rinse, then transfer to a large saucepan or soup pot and add the pumpkin, water, ginger, chilies, lemon juice, bay leaf, spices and 1/2 tablespoon of the ghee or oil. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for about 1 hour, until the pumpkin is tender and the dal is soft. Stir occasionally. When the soup is done, remove the bay leaf and stir in the salt. Using a wire whisk or immersion blender, partially break down the soup until it is creamy. Heat the remaining 2 1/2 tablespoons of ghee or oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. When hot, add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, dried red chilies and sugar, and stir until until the sweetener caramelizes. Add the asafetida and curry leaves, stir once, and quickly pour into the soup. Cover and let sit for about 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley and serve hot. Makes 6 servings

I'm sharing this with Jagruti who is kindly hosting My Legume Love Affair for October. I am looking for guest hosts for 2019, so please do contact me if your are interested in taking a spot.

Other pumpkin recipes to enjoy from Lisa's Kitchen:
Chickpea Pumpkin Burgers
Essentially Raw Pumpkin Bites
Kidney Bean Pumpkin Chili
Pumpkin Cheesecake