Source: FOSS Cooking (community recipes)
Bring the red lentils and water to a rolling boiling in a large pot. Red lentils break down quickly — they'll collapse into a near-purée if you're not watching — so don't walk away. While the water heats, dice the onion, potatoes, and courgette into roughly 1 cm pieces. Chop the Swiss chard into wide ribbons. This is a soup where texture matters: chunky vegetables give the broth structure.
Once the lentils are actively boiling (not a gentle simmer), add the diced potatoes and courgette immediately. These take the longest. Do not sauté the onion separately first — that's unnecessary labour and you'll lose the alliums|allium flavour to the stock before it builds. Instead, add the raw onion to the pot now along with a pinch of salt. The onion will soften and release its sugars directly into the broth, deepening the base flavour. Add the Swiss chard within the first minute; leafy-greens-cooking|leafy greens cook to nothing quickly and you want them to add body and minerals without turning to mush.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot partially (let steam escape so the lentils keep breaking down cleanly), and simmering|simmer until the potatoes are completely tender when pierced and the lentils have mostly disintegrated into the broth — roughly 10 to 12 minutes. The soup should be thick and creamy from the lentil breakdown, not thin. If it's watery, you've under-cooked; if it's gluey, you've gone past it. Taste for salt.
Off the heat, stir in the ground cumin and the lemon juice. The acidity-in-cooking|acid sharpens the earthiness of the lentils and chard, and it cuts through any flatness. Finish with a generous handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped. Do not cook the cilantro — it adds brightness and mediterranean-cuisine|Mediterranean lift only when raw. Serve at once, with the soup still steaming.
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