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

Peasant Supper Sundays 10/17

Heck yeah! Can't wait to start Vegan MOFO! I will be SO done with the wedding by then, you all have no clue (well, maybe you do if you've been married before, I guess).

Anyhoo, for Peasant Supper Sundays this past weekend 10/17 I made a variation on a recipe I found in Clean Eating from last month (Sept 2010 I think?). That magazine is pretty good for recipe inspiration, first time buying it.

Here's my version of their Hearty Lentil Soup:

3 cups green lentils (they used red--couldn't find red and was at the grocery store way too long to care)

1/2 cup brown rice

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic

1 red bell pepper, diced

5 cups water (could use stock as well)

red pepper flakes (to taste)

cumin (1/4th tsp?)

S & P

whopping handful of kale

2 small potatoes, diced in large chunks (I had a purple and a red potato, added both)

Basically, I cooked the onions garlic, and bell pepper in a large pot in olive oil. Added the potato, lentils, kale, and rice, plus the 5 cups of water and seasoning, and had it on a low simmer for about 50-60 minutes. Yummy, full of vitamins, and so easy. Plus, for me, it made like 5 servings, which is great for a healthy lunch.

I did forget to rinse my kale (I know, I know!!! UGH!), so it was a little gritty, but only at the bottom of the soup. I actually got so excited when I cut into the purple potato (didn't know it was purple) that I literally squealed with glee and ran through the house to show Phil. I went to K-State (GO CATS!) so this was pretty squeeee-worthy for me.

Jes