Food Photos

Monday, August 15, 2005

Cooking: Lentil Soup With Tomatoes

Like many working adults, I don't have that much time to cook meals during the week, so when I do, I make sure I can get a few meals out of whatever it is that I decide to make. I do this partly to avoid spending money on lunch at work, and also to give other people a chance to taste (usually) non-traditional foods. Most of my co-workers have pretty middle-American palates (Jonathan, I'm talking to you) but are willing to try new stuff once in a while, especially when I give them a hard time about it at work. :)

Anyway, tonight I made lentil soup bases on a recipe from a good Jewish cookbook I own (The Book of Jewish Food, by Claudia Roden), which has a huge number of recipes (800-plus) along with Jewish culinary history and photographs. Given that "Jewish" food is actually made up of food from just about every Diaspora country Jews have ever lived in, I felt I could take some liberties with the recipe and still be fairly "traditional" in regard to the flavors and culinary influences in the dish I was making.

First, the lentil soup recipe was based on a Sephardic Jewish recipe (the Sephardim are the Jews of Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East) and has more Spanish and Middle Eastern influence than anything else, though I added a couple of modern American twists of my own. Here's what I came up with:

Lentil Soup With Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 medium brown onion, diced
1 large heirloom tomato, cut into eights and sliced into thin triangles
1 cup of "brown" lentils (the greenish brown kind)
6 cups of chicken broth (I actually used 6 cups of water and 6 teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon paste)
5 cloves of garlic, diced fine
3 slices of smoked turkey bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
7 or 8 strands of saffron
Olive oil
Ground pepper, to taste

Directions: First, in a heavy-bottomed pot big enough to hold 6 cups of water and other sundry ingredients, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium low heat. Add diced onions and garlic to pot and cook over low heat until onions become translucent (i.e. start to sweat), about 5 to 7 minutes. Be careful the heat isn't too high or you'll burn the garlic and give the whole dish a bitter flavor.

Once the garlic and onion is cooked somewhat, add the chicken broth, tomatoes, turkey bacon, cumin, ground pepper (to taste; I added about a teaspoon) and cup of lentils. Cover the pot with a lid and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, put the saffron strands into about 2 tablespoons of water in a small cup and microwave the mixture for about 30 seconds on high. Once it's done, add the saffron water, strands and all, to the soup. Once the soup begins to boil, turn the heat down to a simmer and let it cook, mostly covered but with some room for steam to boil off, for about 40 minutes, basically until the lentils are the right texture, i.e. slightly softer than al dente. Serve with dark bread, such as rye, squaw or pumpernickel.

Serves 4 medium-hungry people, 2-3 very hungry people.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Coming to a blog near you...

Sorry about the lack of recent posting. I've been busier than expected lately, though I do have two entries in the works (a restaurant review and some recipes that I made up the other night). With some luck I'll get them up by the end of the week.