I know: “yogurt soup” sounds weird at best, but more likely like a curdled disaster.

But have you ever dolloped yogurt on a curry or a lentil dal? Have you ever mixed a spoonful of yogurt into a dressing for a mediterranean salad? Have you ever drizzled tzatziki onto a savory chicken dish?

The yogurt in this soup isn’t too far from any of those things. The only difference is instead of spooning the yogurt on top of the dish, you gently mix it through.

Now that we’ve gotten over that hurdle, let me talk to you about this soup. Most soups aim to comfort you, not surprise you. But this soup is simultaneously the most interesting and–dare I say it?–the best soup I’ve made in a long time.

This soup really has three layers of flavor. The first are the base ingredients: spices, leeks, lentils, barley, chickpeas, and stock. The next is the tangy greek yogurt. And the final layer is a layer of warm-tasting spices fried in butter, seasoned with zingy lemon juice, and poured over the top of the finished dish. Somehow, all these flavors both blend and don’t, allowing each bite to become a medley of distinct, yet complementary, flavors.

So if you’ve hit a mid-winter rut and want to change up your soup routine, try this. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

---

Previously:
One year ago: Chicken Tagine with Olives and Preserved Lemons
Two years ago: Black Rice Breakfast Porridge

And for my Australians:
Six months ago: Ratatouille
One and a half years ago: Noodle Salad with Sautéed Peppers, Corn, and Sesame Marinade

---

Yogurt Soup with Lentils, Barley, and Mint

Adapted from Alice Hart’s Good Veg
Serves 6

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 large or 4 small leeks, trimmed, sliced, and washed in a couple changes of water
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 cup (150g) barley
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
8 cups (1.89L/64oz) vegetable stock
1 cinnamon stick or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 15-ounce (400g) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup (150g) brown lentils
3 1/2 cups (100g) baby spinach (or more: see notes after recipe)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (300g) full-fat Greek yogurt
Juice of 2 lemons
Sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
6-8 eggs (One per serving. Optional: see notes after recipe)
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 teaspoon paprika (smoked is good, if you happen to have it)
pinch of red pepper flakes
pinch of salt (only if your butter is unsalted)
Big handful of fresh mint, chopped

Instructions

Melt half of the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven set over low heat. Then add the onions, leeks, red pepper flakes, and cumin seeds. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very soft.

Add the barley, flour, and cinnamon and stir for one minute. Pour in the stock, raise to a boil, and simmer, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Add the chickpeas and lentils and simmer for 20 minutes more, until the lentils are just coked and the barley is tender but still has a bite. Stir in the spinach. Remove from heat. If you used a cinnamon stick, fish it out now.

In a separate bowl, whisk the yogurt and half the lemon juice with a ladleful of hot liquid from the soup. Then gently stir the yogurt mixture back into the hot soup. Don’t put back on the heat, because boiling the soup at this point would cause the yogurt to curdle. Taste the soup and add salt if you wish, keeping in mind that the butter mixture added at the end will also be salty.

If you are using eggs, bring a pot of water to boil. Put the eggs in, cover, and lower heat to medium. Set a timer for six minutes. When it goes off, immediately drain the eggs and rinse with cold water.

Melt the remaining butter in a small pan over medium heat until foaming. Add the remaining lemon juice (be conservative on this if your lemons were very juicy), garlic, paprika, red pepper flakes, and salt (if your butter was unsalted) and cook until the butter turns a pale amber and smells nutty. Don’t burn it: it’ll make the garlic taste bitter. Remove from heat. Pour most of the butter over the pot of soup.

Serve soup in bowls. Spoon additional butter mixture over the top of each bowl. Top each serving with a generous amount of fresh mint. If your adding eggs, carefully peel an egg and place on top of each bowl.

Notes

On spinach: Since the spinach cooks down so much, this recipe could easily sustain up to triple the amount of baby spinach, if you’re looking to add more greens to your diet.

On eggs: I found this recipe very filling, even without the eggs, even when I am training for a marathon. My friend’s husband, however, felt he needed the egg. Try it both ways and decide for yourself!