Middle Eastern lentil soup

Lentils play a huge role in my cooking. They are the old faithfuls in the pantry and provide a dependable go to especially when I am out of fresh veggies. Of all the lentils I really like the quick cooking brown and reds which don't need much soaking and cook to perfection in a pressure cooker in 15 mins. This is exactly what I did for this Middle Eastern inspired lentil soup.

The inspiration for this soup comes from one of my favourite lunch places, Neomonde Deli and Bakery. If you like Mediterranean food, I think you will really like this place. They have a great selection of delicious hot and cold dishes along with fresh baked pita bread which they make themselves. I am kind of a boring eater when it comes to places I really like, which means I get the same thing every single time I go there. So here I always get the rice, eggplant stew, tzatziki and fruit salad. The person behind the counter might as well start putting these items together in a plate when they see me walk in. But recently Neomonde introduced a lentil soup which I absolutely fell in love with so now I have a tough time about which one of my regular selections I can substitute it with.

A Syrian friend of mine who also makes an equally good lentil soup hinted it has lemon, garlic and cumin powder as the main flavors, so I kind of ran with those. Here is my take on this soup, which will be my fourth entry for the Recipe Marathon on One Hot Stove.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown lentils

1/2 cup red lentils

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 small carrots, diced

1 tomato, chopped

1 and 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

juice of half a lemon

- Wash the lentils together and soak in water till ready to use.

- In a pressure cooker, heat a tablespoon of olive oil.

- Add onions and garlic and saute for 3-4 mins.

- Add the diced carrots and salt and saute for another 2-3 mins.

- Add the tomatoes, paprika and cumin and mix well.

- After the tomatoes soften, add the lentils along with enough water to cover them.

- Put the pressure cooker lid on and cook for 10 mins or till lentils are completely cooked through.

- Blend half the soup and mix in with the rest.

- Serve hot with a liberal amount of lemon juice and some toasted pita bread.

Makes 4 servings.

Dal & kale

Dal & kale came about by substituting the spinach from Dal & palak (spinach). Dal is one of my favorite comfort foods and the weather here is shouting out for comfort food right now. Its cold and grey most of the week and if that wasnt enough it rains almost every day. And I dont like rain. So some hot dal with rice was the perfect meal to curl up on the sofa with.

We also had a lot of kale from our CSA which happened to be a perfect (if not better) substitute for spinach in the Dal palak recipe. And this was extremely easy to put together. I cooked the dal and kale in a pressure cooker, seasoned it with spices and topped it off with some fried garlic. The end result was very satisfying with a bowl of white rice.

Ingredients:
1 cup tur dal
1 bunch of kale, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped

1 chopped tomato
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon tamarind pulp

2-3 garlic cloves, sliced thin

- Cook the dal, kale and onion with enough water in the pressure cooker.
- Once cooked, add another cup of water or more if required to thin out the dal.
- Add all ingredients from tomato through the tamarind pulp.
- Mix well and boil for 3-4 mins. Taste and adjust spices/salt as required.
- Heat a teaspoon of oil and fry the garlic slices, add to the dal and serve hot!

Makes 4 main servings with rice.

Rainbow chard and lentil pasta

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of our friends told us about Coon Rock CSA. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) offers city dwellers an opportunity to get fresh produce from nearby farms. It's not only a great way to eat fresh seasonal organic vegetables and meat but also a great way to support local farms. The idea of getting a box of vegetables every week seemed a bit daunting at first but Coon Rock Farms makes it even more convenient and flexible. Instead of signing up for a weekly supply of vegetables, you can also create custom orders. Its really simple: join their mailing list, get a weekly list of the produce, mail them back with what you need and pick up from a location nearby!

We picked up our first custom CSA order last Thursday and we are quite excited! We have fingerling sweet potatoes, purple top turnips, rainbow swiss chard and some chorizo sausage. I have been trying to figure out ways and means of putting these to good use over the last couple of days and have come up with this pasta so far.

This pasta with chard and lentils is inspired from two different pasta dishes we had over the last couple of weeks. One was made by our friends who cooked us a wonderful Middle Eastern dinner last weekend. The pasta dish they made is a Damascus specialty and is somewhat like a pasta casserole with lentils. The second pasta dish was made by another of our friends for dinner this weekend and had swiss chard with fettuccine and walnuts. I loved both and decided to combine the lentils and chard into one dish. I tried to refrain from using any strong herbs/spices in this dish so that the fresh chard would be the star.

Ingredients

One medium onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, chopped

Bunch of swiss/rainbow chard

1 cup cooked lentils

2 cups of fusilli/penne pasta

juice and lemon zest of half a lemon

lots of fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add chopped garlic.

- Stir garlic for a couple of minutes and then add the chopped onion.

- When the onion is soft, add the chopped chard and saute well.

- Once the chard wilts, add the cooked lentils (I boiled them in water)

- Add lemon juice, zest, salt and pepper.

- Add the cooked pasta and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes to get all the flavors mixed in.

- Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve.

Greek Lentil Soup

Earlier this month, my husband A and I traveled to Greece. We landed in Athens after a very long red eye flight. Excitement was paramount as we had been planning this trip for months. However as we started walking around Athens for first explorations, jet lag and exhaustion started catching up. A lunch stop was deemed necessary.

We had been following Matt Barett's guide for Athens quite religiously and found ourselves to be in the same area as this lunch place he highly recommends, Oinomagerio Paradosiako. So we walked around a bit more, trying to look like we could easily read Greek road names. Then eventually decided we do need to ask for directions and finally found the place.

A quick look at the menu led to a choice of lentil soup and the mixed grill platter. And then the soup arrived. A big bowl of steaming hot goodness accompanied by crusty Greek bread (that has to be another post). The taste was so simple yet comforting. By the time I decided to take a picture, we were half way through it. (Note to self: I need to remember taking pictures before eating now that I am writing a blog.) By the time we were done, the soup had restored us completely. (The grill platter was quite good too).

We were in Greece for a week after that and then for a few days in Turkey. We had lots of great meals in both places. But for me this first lunch in Athens was the most memorable. Just for the simplicity and comfort of this lentil soup. So I tried to recreate it as soon as I got back. After a couple of tries I think I got pretty close to the original. At least A seems to think so.

The key here is lots of garlic and really flavorful oregano. I used Greek oregano (which is a bit like Thyme, per the locals) but you can try this with regular Italian oregano too. Here is my attempt at this recipe. Folks at Oinomagerio Paradosiako, if you ever do read this, please feel free to correct me.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2-3 bay leaves (fresh or dried)

6-8 cloves of garlic (peeled and halved)

1 medium yellow onion chopped

1 14 oz can diced/crushed tomatoes

1 1/2 teaspoon Greek oregano (substitute with any oregano you have)

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

salt according to taste

1 cup brown lentils

4 cups veg/chicken stock or water

Juice of half a lemon

- Heat a stock pot and add olive oil.

- Add bay leaves and saute for around 30 seconds.

- Roughly crush the halved garlic cloves, add and saute some more till fragrant.

- Add the chopped onions and cook for another 3-4 mins till the onion is soft.

- Add the diced/crushed tomatoes and cook for another minute or two.

- Add paprika, black pepper and oregano, salt if the tomatoes/stock don't have it already. Mix well so that tomatoes and the spices are nicely combined.

- Add the lentils followed by the stock/water and bring to a boil.

- Reduce heat to medium/low, cook covered till lentils are soft.

- Stir in the lemon juice before serving.

Makes 2-3 main size servings. You can also double this recipe and eat it all week. A crusty Italian loaf makes a great accompaniment.