Lentil soup

Monday was a snow day in London.  We woke up to a great, whopping, six inches of snow, which paralyzed one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world.  Yes, we are wimps.  Living in the northeast for years, regularly getting storms that drop several feet of snow, I never once got to miss classes or work.  A few inches of powder here?  The entire city ground to a halt.

Forced to stay home, make snow men and snow angels, naturally I also had to cook up a good and warming lunch.  What better than soup?  Specifically a hearty, flavorful, meat on the cold bones kind of soup.  Lentils and potatoes did the trick, and the best part was, for once, I got to take a nice photo in natural light.  Working long days means it's dark when I leave in the morning and dark when I get home at night, so my poor dishes languish under unflattering energy saving lightbulbs (as do we all).  The beautiful, diffuse light in the snow made my soup look even better here than it did in person.

And why did it take me 5 days to upload this post?  One of the laws of nature: shorter weeks always seem longer and busier than normal ones.

Lentil soup:

1 medium onion or 1 large leek, chopped

1 fat garlic clove, minced

1 large carrot, chopped

1 C. brown lentils

2 medium potatoes (peeled or unpeeled), cut into 1 inch cubes

1 can chopped tomatoes

4-6 C. water or vegetable stock

2 C. broccoli cut into florets, or other greens (kale, savoy cabbage, spinach)

Saute the onion and carrot until they begin to soften.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.

Add the lentils, potatoes, tomatoes, and water, and let simmer for about 25 minutes until the lentils are soft and potatoes are cooked through.  Stir in broccoli and cook only a few minutes, until the florets soften but remain bright green.

Serves 4

Masoor dal

I realize the risk I am taking in calling my most likely inauthentic Indian dish by its authentically Indian name, but what can I say -- I need to get my thrills somehow, and a bungee jump wasn't in the cards on a Tuesday night.

Anyway, I am currently experiencing a glut of lentils due to some unfortunate over-purchasing, and, it being cold and miserable outside (i.e. England), I crave warming spices.  A curry of red split lentils, with bright turmeric, bold coriander, and the other usual suspects would just about do the trick.  I also love coconut milk, and love the blocks of creamed coconut which I can just keep in the fridge and shave off little pieces here and there whenever I need a little bit.  Cans of coconut milk are just too restricting.  For those who have yet to experience coconut in this medium, this is what I'm talking about.  I threw in some carrots because they seem to be multiplying like rabbits in my veg box, always delivered faster than I can eat them.

I took this to work on top of some leftover rice and a few stray cherry tomatoes.  The result: a golden, creamy, remedy for seasonal affective disorder -- sunshine in a bowl.

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 fat clove garlic, minced

1 inch knob fresh ginger, minced

1/2 tsp. turmeric

1/2 tsp. coriander

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1 medium carrot, cut into small pieces

1 C. red split lentils

3 C. water, plus more if the dal dries out while cooking

1 inch slice of creamed coconut, or approx. 1/3 C. coconut milk

In a medium saucepan, cook the onions until soft.  Add garlic and ginger, and cook another minute until soft.  Add spices and cook for a minute or two until they become fragrant.

Add lentils, carrots, water and coconut and cook for 20-30 minutes until the lentils become soft and almost melt into a thick liquid.

Serves 2