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Easy Lentil Black Eyed Pea soup with Spinach. Masoor Raungi Palak Dal. Easy spiced protein filled soup. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Indian Recipe. Serves 3 to 4
The days I want to change up the usual one type of lentil or bean in a dal/soup, I add more than one. The resulting Dal packs a protein punch. Black Eyed Peas with Lentils or mung beans is a favorite combination. filling enough without feeling overly beany. You can make this soup with just lentils or just black eyed peas. Add veggies of choice. I added spinach and green beans.
Indian soups and Dals are generally over cooked. ie. the beans should disintegrate easily and lentils should generally get slightly mushy or porridge like. That is the preferred consistency. You can cook for a shorter time for preferred doneness and adjust water for thinner or thicker consistency to preference. Make it oil-free by omitting the oil.
Make this easy Lentil Black eyed Pea Soup. Serve hot with flatbread, rice, or in a bowl.
More Soups and Dals from the blog
- Kashmiri Dal – Split Pea & Yellow Lentil Soup…
- Chickpea Lentil Quinoa Spinach Stew.
- Dal Fry – Spiced Indian Lentil soup
- Oil free Lentil Soup. Spicy Garlic Dal
- Moroccan Lentil Soup
Reading for the day
James Cameron on why he eats vegan.
Reasons to watch Cowspiracy, now streaming on Netflix.
- Dairy. 1,000 gallons/liters of water are required to produce 1 gallon/liter of milk.
- Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
- Growing feed crops for livestock consumes 56% of water in the US.
- Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq ft of forested land, 20 lbs CO2 equivalent, and one animal’s life.
- At least one acre of rainforest is cleared every second and the leading cause is to graze animals and grow their food crops. That is essentially an entire football field cleared every. single. second. find out a lot more in the documentary.
Lentil Black Eyed Pea Soup with Greens
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup black eyed peas/ cowpeas, raungi/lobhia
- 1/2 cup lentils, brown lentils, Sabut Masoor
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 cup onions
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 inch ginger, chopped
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/8 to 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne/ red chili powder
- 2 tomatoes, 1 loaded cup tomatoes, finely chopped or blended into purree
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 3/4 to 1 tsp salt
- 2.5 cups water
- 1/2 cup chopped spinach , or baby greens of choice
- 1/2 cup small chopped green beans, or carrots or zucchini or other veggies
- cilantro and lemon juice for garnish
Instructions
- Soak the black eyed peas and lentils for half an hour if making in a saucepan. or soak at this step for 15 minutes if making in a pressure cooker. (time needed by steps 2 through 5).
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a saucepan or pressure cooker. Once hot, add cumin seeds and cook for a minute or until cumin seeds change color.
- Blend onion, garlic, ginger with a tbsp or so water until coarsely blended. Add to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until fragrant and golden.
- Add the spices, mix and cook for a minute.
- Add tomatoes and cook for 6 to 7 minutes.
- Drain the black eyed peas and lentils and add to the pan with salt, lemon juice, 2.5 cups water, greens and veggies. Mix in.
- Cook in a Pressure Cooker: Close the lid and pressure cook for 15 minutes after the pressure has reached. (Manual 15 minutes at high pressure in Instant Pot). Let the pressure release naturally.
- Cook in a Saucepan: In the saucepan, add 3 cups of water instead of 2.5 cups. Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Reduce heat and continue to simmer over medium-low heat for another 20 to 25 minutes or until the lentils and black eyed peas are tender to preference.
- Garnish with cilantro and lemon juice and serve as a soup bowl, or with rice or flatbread
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this tonight. Super good. I did use red lentils and you are right, they did disintegrate, but it was still good. I found that even after soaking, the black eyed peas took about an hour to cook well and I added a can of coconut milk, which was great!
Great! Yes red lentils cook in 10-11 mins in saucepan and 1 min in pressure cooker. The black eyed peas might be old. They should generally cook within 35 to 40 mins, but beans cooking time varies with age and batch etc. The fresh ones (soaked) will cook in 30 mins in saucepan
Great recipe. Can I use green lentils please ?
sure, use green lentils. adjust cooking time if needed
This was superb Richa, I wasn’t sure it would need all that time to cook, but the flavours really develop with the cooking. Black eyed beans (peas) are one of my favourite beans, and lentils are another one!
With all these lovely recipes I have no more excuses not to go vegan, I’ve been thinking about it for ages. X Sarah
Awesome!!
It doesn’t only look good, it tastes good. Yummy. Thx for sharing.
awesome!
Reading this recipe and the photo have my mouth watering! Would red lentils be a good sub for the brown lentils, just as another way to make this dish?
By the way we recently watched Cowspiracy. What an incredible film! More people need to know the facts about the impact of consuming animal products. I couldn’t believe my meat-loving husband saying that he wanted to eat less meat and more plant-based after seeing it. That is a lot coming from him!
Love what you do. Thanks.
Red lentils will disintegrate completely into the liquid (like creamy porridge) in the cooking time. Use 1 cup black eyed peas instead for a black eyed pea soup.
Indeed. Documentaries like these which cover a lot of different perspectives and stats were the ones that worked to get my husband on board as well!
this soup was delicious. I had to adapt it a bit because I didn’t have black-eyed peas. I used a mixture of field peas (similar to black-eyed) and black beans. I also did use red lentils and I loved the way they became creamy in the soup. Finally I added some garam masala and brown mustard seed. So so good!
Awesome!
Looks and sounds AMAZING! I could totally go for a huge bowl of this right now 🙂
me too! i need to make another batch for the weekend.
This looks so good. I’ve never cooked with black-eyed beans before…what do they taste like?
they taste somewhat like kidney beans. try them. they cook quickly and taste fabulous!
This is going to be perfect for this weekend…perfect way to welcome Fall!
Awesome!!