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RJM62

RJM62

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jun 15, 2007
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Geek on the Hill
GO GET YOUR LENTILS!

Hurry. Time is running out.

-Rich
 
Please do so now...


(those are the only possible words which are permitted to follow the thread title. Thank you, that is all)
 
KeithASanford said:
Yeah, I'm gonna need that recipe. :drool:
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Well, this one I just kind of wing. It's different every time I make it depending on what I have on hand. It's hard to make lentil soup wrong.

The basic ingredients are lentils and water (or broth or stock, if you prefer). I usually start with three or four times as much water as lentils by volume. This time I used three because I wanted it thick.

Other typical ingredients include chopped celery, carrots, and onions. The usual spices are salt, black pepper, parsley, oregano, bay leaf, and minced garlic. I've also used dill, kale, cabbage, radishes, and broccoli. This time I used chopped salt, black pepper, celery, carrots, onions, parsley, oregano, bay leaf, and broccoli.

Optional ingredients are some kind of meat (bacon, pancetta, ground beef, dry sausage, prosciutto, salami, or chicken are popular choices), tomatoes or tomato paste, hot sauce, grated cheese, bread crumbs... pretty much anything that you think will taste good in it. This time I used pancetta, Hunts tomato sauce (hey, I had it on hand), and Sriracha sauce.

The basic steps are to put a little olive oil in a pot and cook the meat, if uncured meat is used. I also like to cook pancetta or bacon a bit because it's only just barely cured. You don't really want it crunchy (unless, of course, you do). If using dry sausage or something like that that's been cured for a long time, then just chop it, toss it in, and proceed to the next step.

You can also use a bone instead of meat if all you want is the flavoring. Just add the bone to the water when you pour it in. You can also use stock or broth instead of water if you like.

The next step is to add the liquid, lentils, spices, and meat. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, then add the tomatoes (if used), reduce the heat to low, and let it slow-cook for about two hours.

About halfway through, add the vegetables.

And that's it. This is such a simple soup that I've never bothered to write down the recipe. It's kind of hard to screw up: If you do nothing else other than boil the lentils and let them cook for a couple of hours, you'll have lentil soup. Everything else is up to you.

Rich

Addendum: In many traditions, eating Lentils on New Years Eve is considered good luck. It probably has to do with the lentils swelling as they cook, which symbolizes prosperity and plenty. For best results, it is said that you should actually have lentils in your mouth at the stroke of midnight.
 
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Ah, I was wondering how beans and New Years related. I was hoping it wasn't the gas.
 
Round here black eyed peas are the New Years meal for good luck. I don't buy into that nonsense. I hate black eyed peas, along with Lima beans lentils and cottage cheese.
 
Made lentil soup awhile back with cauliflower and potatoes. Might make another. Good food. Soup is easy to make, it's true.
 
Unit74 said:
Round here black eyed peas are the New Years meal for good luck. I don't buy into that nonsense. I hate black eyed peas, along with Lima beans lentils and cottage cheese.
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I'll have yours and you can have my raw tomatoes... The fruit so horrible everyone thinks it's a vegetable. ;)
 
Ketchup/catsup is still tomatoes, right? I like that stuff on just about anything.
 
It's black-eyed peas for us, especially my wife and her deep-south heritage. She's a smart and wise woman (and mighty easy on the eyes, too!), but she has a few significant superstitions, and the black-eyed peas are a big 'un.

So it's December 31, 1999, and we're in Adelaide, South Australia, and nobody seems to have a clue what a black-eyed pea is, much less where to get any (Celia's bag of dried peas was confiscated by customs at entry in Sydney, thus protecting Australia from being overrun by... well, peas). Even Woolies was a dry hole.

Finally, at an obscure stand in Adelaide's remarkable central market (sort of a farmers' market on steroids), some fine-looking black-eyeds were spotted, bought and subsequently set to soaking, pending their timely date with a ham-hock and heavenly consumption.

Year 2000 came in with all demons thus held at bay...
 
Thanks for the recipe, Rich! I'm going to tackle that tonight.

I never even heard of eating beans for good luck until I moved to the Mid Atlantic area. I happen to LOVE the taste of black eyed peas, and northern beans and from what I've been reading, bean protein is good for you. I'll be glad to add lentil soup to my rotation...

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Made another batch of lentil soup. The new food processor made short work of dicing vegetables. Mmmmm, healthy and yummy. Just needs hot sauce.
 
Cool beans ... and I didn't get it, until the explanation. :D
 
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