Curried Red Lentil Soup

This recipe is from 101 Cookbooks which is a gorgeous blog with some delicious recipes. I changed it up a bit and served it with some homemade paneer and roasted butternut squash.

1 cup dried yellow split peas
1 cup dried red split lentils (masoor dal)
7 cups water (I used the extra whey from making the paneer instead for extra flavor)
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh peeled and minced ginger
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 heaping tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons butter
8 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced
1/4 red onion, diced
1/3 cup golden raisins (I used dried cranberries)
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt
one small handful cilantro, chopped
cooked brown rice or farro, for serving

Bring the lentils and split peas to a boil in the 7 cups of water or broth.

Reduce heat to a simmer and add the carrot and 1/4 of the ginger. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the split peas are soft.
In the meantime, in a dry saucepan over low heat, toast the curry powder until it is quite fragrant. Be careful though, you don't want to burn the curry powder, just toast it. Set aside.

Place the butter in a pan over medium heat, add half of the green onions, the red onion, the remaining ginger, garlic, and cranberries.

Saute for two minutes stirring constantly, then add the tomato paste and saute for another minute or two more.

Add the toasted curry powder to the tomato paste mixture, mix well, and then add this to the simmering soup along with the coconut milk and salt.
Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or so. Add some water for a thinner soup or simmer longer for a thicker consistency. I kept the soup pretty thick and I kept cooking it over low heat for several hours. Sprinkle each bowl generously with cilantro and the remaining green onions to garnish. Serve over some farro.