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I was planning to make lentil soup last night, but it turned out that in fact we did not have very many lentils at all. So I made split pea soup instead. But then, instead of making split pea soup qua split pea soup, I made something that was basically lentil soup with split peas, and um, a few other things. A subtle difference, perhaps, but a real one. It also turned out to be a good strategy. In the words of S., "This soup is rad!"
Now that I have a nice big pot for making soup in, I can make a lot of soup. Even allowing for the fact that when recipes say that soup "serves 6 to 8" they are not imagining that you will be eating nothing but soup for supper, it is really quite a lot of soup for two people, even two greedy people like us. We'll be having leftovers soon. Here's what I did:
I took about 1 1/4 cups of split peas and about 1/4 cup of red lentils and rinsed and drained them, and covered them with water again. Then at the bottom of my big soup pot, I sauteed 1 giant onion, chopped, and 3 normal carrots, sliced, in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, for about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, I minced 2 large garlic cloves very very fine.
When the onions and carrots began to take on color, I worked in 1 tablespoon of very nice tomato paste, then the garlic, some thyme, and a little rosemary, and cooked the mixture a couple of minutes longer.
At last, I drained the legumes and added them along with 8 cups of water and a couple of teaspoons of salt, as well as plenty of freshly ground pepper and a generous sprinkling of ground chipotle (you could use paprika instead). I brought everything to a boil, stirring often, and then lowered the heat and left it on a gentle simmer for about an hour. Right at the end, I added a handful of greens, a handful of frozen peas, and about a tablespoon and a half each of mustard and rice wine vinegar. I also adjusted the salt.
Good soup!
Posted by redfox at February 03, 2003 09:15 AM (dinner reports)all breads | breakfast | dinner reports | drink | eating out | essays | etcetera | lunch | news | recipes | salads | snacks | soups | sweets | tips | travel | vegetables | weekly meals |
