Monday, October 1, 2012

Vegan MoFo, Day 1: Lentil Soup

Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hello, MoFo'ers! Happy to be part of another year of inventive and good-looking cookery! This is my third Vegan MoFo.

Today's a dual-post kind of day. Remember my theme? I'm broke, so I'm going through recipes in Meatless Meals by Jean Prescott Adams. You know what's cheap? Lentils. Especially lentils you already have on hand because you tried sprouting half the bag, they soured, and you didn't want to think about another damned lentil for months. Glad I could finally put them to good use!

This recipe comes from the 1943 section of the book (basically, she wrote the book in 1931 and added a revised version at the front in 1943). You can find this on page 3N ('N' for NEW!), and I made a few modifications.

Lentil Soup
slightly adapted from Meatless Meals, page 3N
serves 5--supplies thiamin, riboflavin, iron and protein

2 cups dried lentils
8 cups cold water
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 onion, minced
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp flour

Soak the lentils for 8 hours. Drain, then add the lentils and 4 cups of the cold water to a pot. Bring to a simmer slowly (otherwise, it will foam over). Cook for 1 hour until lentils soften (the book says 2hrs, but 1hr worked for me). Add diced celery and 4 more cups of water, and cook for another hour (again, she says 2hrs, but 1hr was sufficient). Saute the minced onion in butter (separate pan). Add seasonings and flour and blend thoroughly. Add 1 cup of soup stock gradually to combine with flour. Once smooth, add roux to soup and stir to incorporate. Cook 10 minutes to thicken the soup.


{rustic bread from the farmers' market is the perfect accompaniment!}


{what better cheap and old-timey garnish than dried parsley?}

{oooooooohhhh yeeaaaaaahhh. lentils never looked so good.}

This was HANDS DOWN the BEST lentil soup I've ever tasted. Simple recipe FTW!

On a totally different note, I finally got around to watching the mid-season finale of Doctor Who and cried more at the end than I did when David Tennant left or when Rose got stuck in the parallel world. Holy Christmas...I was still crying half an hour later when I was trying to fall asleep. 

Jes

VMF Day 1 2011: Curry is for Lovers
VMF Day 1 2010: Green Soup

2 comments:

  1. It's so neat that you're using a retro book as your theme inspiration!! The lentil soup, as well as the bread, look delish!

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  2. That lentil soup looks really good! I also love how you post links to your past mofo days! Great idea!

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