Lentils were on my mind this week, but I’ve never cooked with them before so I haven’t been adventurous…yet. Another new addition to my world of cooking is turmeric. Never used that before and now I find myself using a whopping ¼ teaspoon! Watch out world! I found this recipe about a month ago, and have been dancing around making it since.
The process of picking through the lentils was kind of strange, but less intimating once I knew what I was looking for. What you want to pick out are the harder rock looking ones, I mostly kept my eye out for ones that were wrinkly and much smaller than the others. Once you pick up your first ‘rock’, you’ll know what to look for no problem. Ugh, but talk about tedious!
They have a gorgeous smell while boiling, something along the lines of sautéing shallots and baking bread. Just wonderful.
The ingredients mixed together beautifully, and instantly produce a very strong aroma. The garlic hits your nose immediately followed by the ginger. Oh, the original recipe called for fresh ginger. Because I don’t use it often enough to buy fresh, I did some digging and found that a 1 ½ inch piece of fresh ginger is more or less equivalent to 2 tablespoons of ground ginger. That’s a piece of information I’ll definitely keep in my back pocket.
Because I’m a sucker for heat and garlic, I doubled the garlic and added an extra half of Serrano chili. I also added another ¼ cup of cilantro. Delicious.
Since I got my immersion blender, I’m inclined to puree EVERYTHING. Just two weeks ago I pureed my Samosa filling mix to make a beautifully blended curry soup. Anyway, you can understand my confusion when the recipe didn’t instruct me to blend it! What? Really? So, to try to meet the recipe half way, I blended half of it. This preserved the thickness of the soup but gave me the creamier base I have grown to love and crave.
End result? Awesome and inspiring to use lentils more. I would have added the other half of the Serrano chili for additional spice, but am now thinking that a piece of habanero would do wonders! Great dish with an array of ways to prepare it.
2 cups red lentils, rinsed
1 serrano chili, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 1 and 1/2 in piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
or, 2 tablespoons ground ginger
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro, plus more for topping
Combine lentils and 7 cups of warm water in a pot. Cover and bring to a boil.
Add chili pepper, tomato, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and salt.
Partially cover and simmer over medium heat stirring frequently until thickened (18-20 minutes).
Serve with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.
If blending:
Use an immersion blender for roughly 4-5 seconds.
Or, separate about 1/2 of soup and blend in a food processor, pulsing 3 or 4 times.
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