What's Cooking in Carolina?

Mainly creative menus and recipes (usually healthy) and always from scratch with tips for party planning, theme parties, weddings and decorating tips so you can give swank parties or dinners to delight your guests from a part time caterer, owner/operator of a coming soon Entree Vous, but mainly a cook and eater who grows much of her own food and loves to laugh.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Spicy Lentil Soup

We are having a real cold spell, so are back in soup mode. We made a wonderful lentil soup from the Mustard's cookbook, using turnips instead of beets, because that's what's in the garden and We didn't have to go to the store. The recipe uses a great combination of spices: black pepper, black mustard seeds, coriander seeds, and turmeric to make a beautifully colored soup using red lentils.

Spicy Lentil Soup

Mainly from Mustard's Grill by Cindy Pawlcyn but this is my modified version, as always. If you want the original, buy the cookbook. It is well worth it.

Spice Mix:
1 T black peppercorns
1 T black mustard seed
2 T coriander seeds
2 T ground turmeric

Soup:
2 dried chipotle pepper
3 T extra virgin olive oil
8 cl garlic garlic, minced
1 c onions, minced
1 c carrots, minced
4 med turnips, minced
1 c dry white wine
8-10 c chicken stock
1/2 lb orange lentils
4 medium Yukon gold potatoes, minced
2 tea salt
2 T champagne vinegar
3 T cilantro minced

To make spice mix, combine peppercorns, mustard and coriander seeds in a dry skillet. Toast over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes, until seeds begin to pop. Let cool then grind in a spice grinder and mix with the turmeric. Use 1 T of mix for soup, reserving the remainder.

To make soup, preheat oven to 350. Place chilies on baking sheet and toast 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Transfer chilies to a bowl of warm water for 10-15 minutes, until soft. Heat oil in a large pot until hot, add garlic, onions and chilies and cook until soft, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add 1 T spice mix, carrots and turnips and cook about 5 minutes. Add wine, cook 1 minute, then add broth. Add lentils, potatoes and ginger. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, adding more broth if it gets too thick. Season with salt and vinegar and serve with coriander.

We served it with whole wheat tortillas and it was great.



We are submitting it to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted this week by Ulrick at Küchenlatein. Please go check out her round up on Monday. They are always full of great food information.

Cheers!

10 Comments:

  • At 4:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think this is the lentil week at WHB. Thanks for joining.

     
  • At 6:53 AM, Blogger Helene said…

    That´s a great colourful soup. Just the thing I need when it´s grey and misty outside. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

     
  • At 9:17 AM, Blogger Unknown said…

    A lovely bowl of warm soup, comforting!

     
  • At 4:35 PM, Blogger Mandira said…

    The lentil soup looks delicious. I'm going to make it this week while the temp hovers around zero. Thanks for sharing.

     
  • At 10:03 PM, Blogger Kalyn Denny said…

    Cilantro and chipotle pepper, must be good! Plus I love lentils.

     
  • At 2:01 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    It is cold here in PA too.this soup looks awesome.Great winter comfort food.

     
  • At 2:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    omg 2 chipotles. Now that sounds like my kind of soup, I have this big bag of dried chipotles in my shelf! Will have to try it soon.

     
  • At 2:12 PM, Blogger JMom said…

    It has definitely been soup weather around here. Your lentil soup looks delicious!

     
  • At 7:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I just bought some lentils and my 13 year old son saw them and said he'd wondered what lentils were. So, I must make this soup for him.

     
  • At 5:12 AM, Blogger Katie said…

    I never thought about using the red lentils in soup - it looks really thick and good - plus a pretty color and much faster.
    Great recipe!

     

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