coconut red lentil soup.

I must explain to all of you my lack of blogging recently. It isn't that I've been too lazy, although once you hear the real reason you may beg to differ. It isn't that I haven't been cooking. Trust me...we've been eating. And it definitely isn't due to a lack of new recipes to share. Since recently joining the addictive habit of Pinterest, my camera is overloaded with new recipes we've been trying. Sidebar...I must apologize to all of you who are "following" my posts on Pinterest, as my "repins" have all been of the foodie persuasion.

The real reason for my recent absence has been due to a little technical glitch with my laptop. I have recently lost all function of my letter "e", and for those of you who think this may not be a big deal...stop and consider the number of times I have had to "copy" and "paste" just to write this paragraph! Super frustrating! And it's a "good" day when it's just my letter "e" that decides not to work. Some particularly frustrating days, my "e" along with my "d", my "s" and some days even my "c" decide not to work! Luckily this is a "good" day. My husband is convinced this problem must be some sort of virus I picked up on Pinterest, but I'm not fully convinced. I unfortunately think it has more to do with the honey that may have dripped on my computer while I was blogging about granola bars...oh the hazards of the job :)

So while I generally like to "reword" a recipe I find, this one is copied directly from 101 Cookbooks...just for my sanity. Feel free to follow the original recipe from Heidi here.   

Since it's February, and since the weather in Montreal continues to dip below -20 degrees C, I will continue to make soup. And this recipe is a keeper! So tasty and hearty and according to my mom..."the kind of soup that really sticks to your ribs". For the past two weeks I've made a big pot of it on Sunday afternoon, and then enjoy it in my lunch at work for the rest of the week. For those of you who may be scared off by the raisins or the cilantro, I think it would still be great without them...maybe even with a dollop of peanut butter or sour cream on top! Don't judge...the added fat just seems to add a certain "je ne sais quoi"!


Coconut Red Lentil Soup

- (1) cup of yellow split peas
- (1) cup of red split lentils
- (7) cups of water
- (1) medium carrot, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- (2) tablespoons of fresh peeled and minced ginger
- (2) tablespoons of curry powder
- (2) tablespoons of butter
- (8) green onions, thinly sliced
- (1/3) cup of golden raisins
- (1/3) cup (80 mL)of tomato paste
- (1) 14-ounce can of coconut milk
- (2) teaspoons of salt
- one small handful of cilantro, chopped

Give the split peas and lentils a good rinse - until they no longer put off murky water. 

Place them in an extra-large soup pot, cover with the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the carrot and 1/4 of the ginger. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the split peas are soft.

In the meantime, in a small dry skillet or saucepan over low heat, toast the curry powder until it is quite fragrant. Be careful though, you don't want to burn the curry powder, just toast it. Set aside. 

Place the butter in a pan over medium heat, add half of the green onions, the remaining ginger, and raisins. Saute for two minutes stirring constantly, then add the tomato paste and saute for another minute or two more.

Add the toasted curry powder to the tomato paste mixture, mix well, and then add this to the simmering soup along with the coconut milk and salt.

Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or so. The texture should thicken up, but you can play around with the consistency if you like by adding more water for a thinner soup or simmer longer for a thicker consistency.

Feel free to eat this soup on it's own, sprinkled with cilantro and the remaining green onions, or add on top of your favourite grain; rice, barley, farro, whatever!

Enjoy!

p soup.

I should start this blog post with a disclaimer...pea soup was not always my favourite. To be completely honest, I couldn't stand it! The look of that nasty pork hock sitting on the kitchen counter when my mom was about to start a fresh batch, the look of the murky water in the pot as the peas began to break down, and the smell! Not a very good way to start a blog about pea soup. I am pretty sure I have officially scared everyone reading from ever trying out this recipe.

But I can honestly say that I am now a fan. While the phrase "you'll learn to like it" never worked for my relationship with beer, it did with pea soup. I definitely think it's an acquired taste, much like other Dutch foods that come to mind...droppies (salted black licorice), pickled herring, and deer meat (which I have yet to become a fan of). Another disclaimer...that not all Dutch food is questionable. There are many Dutch treats such as Kroketten (Dutch croquettes), apple floppen (basically deep-fried apples) and Boeterkoek (translation..."butter" "cake") that are all guilty of increasing the size of my dearly named "inner-tube". For those of you wondering...it's that much loved extra bit of weight that us ladies seem to carry right under our belly buttons, wrapping all the way around...similar to a child's flotation device.

Back to my soup. Pea soup, specifically Dutch pea soup (as I can't speak for the French), is one of those types of soups that can serve NOT as an appetizer to a meal, but as the meal itself. It is so hearty and filling! There is much discrepancy among the Dutch on the proper consistency of a truly great pea soup. Some people like it runny, much like an ordinary broth soup, while others prefer it thick enough to double-time as a grout to fix those nasty cracks in your tiles. Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of liquids in this recipe according to your preference.


Dutch Pea Soup (Snert)
        (Serves 6-8)
 
- (8) cups of water or broth (chicken or vegetable)
- (500) grams green split peas
- (1 or 2) hunks of pork hock (also known as ham hock or pork knuckles) (optional)
- (2) bay leaves
- (3) cloves
- (250) grams of smoked sausage such as kielbasa (optional)
- (1) cup of carrots, sliced
- (1/2) cup of onions, chopped
- (1) cup of celery, chopped
- (1) tsp of salt (if using water and not broth), otherwise just a pinch
- (1/2) tsp of pepper


Put 8 cups of water or broth in a large pot on the stove. Add in the split peas, the pork hock, the bay leaves and cloves and bring to a boil. 

Cover the pot and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour (or until the peas have cooked to a purée), stirring occassionally to make sure the peas don't stick to the bottom. You will see the broth slowly turn to a vibrant shade of green!

Remove the ham hock from the soup. This is sort of the tough part. As best as you can, remove the thick outer skin from hock and cut the pork meat into little chunks. Add the meat back to the soup along with the sausage and cut up vegetables.

Cook gently for 30 minutes. Remove and slice the sausage and then return it to the soup. At this point your soup should be ready to enjoy. Make sure to give it a taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Serve immediately or feel free to do like I do and store in containers and freeze.