Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 March 2005 18:55:14
I cooked spicy lentil soup this evening, from a recipe sent me by someone from SoF. It remains on the scrap paper I scribbled it out on over a year ago (not having a printer at the time) and I am putting it here because, having thought about the prospect of moving house and packing stuff and all that, the chances of random scraps of paper disappearing into oblivion are pretty high, and I'd really hate to lose this one, which is one of my favourites. Plus, at only 1.5 weightwatchers points if you divide it into 5 (really quite generous) portions, I thought it was worth sharing. It's written the way I tend to cook rather than in recipe-ese, which I also like. Whenever I reheat it at work *everyone* wants to know what it is, so add this to your repertoire for a surefire hit.
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Spicy lentil soup
13 heaped tbsps dried red lentils
4 tsps olive oil
3 large onions
1 or 2 carrots
6 or 7 cloves of garlic
dried ginger, turmeric, fenugreek, coriander, chilli powder, curry powder, whatever
couple of pints of stock (about 1 ltr)
tomato puree
pepper
Put the lentils in a big bowl with warm water to soak. Chop the onion quite roughly and grate the carrot(s). Saute the onions in a big pot with the olive oil, adding half the crushed garlic once they have started to soften. Add some spices now - turmeric, ginger, fenugreek.
Once the onions are nice and soft and browned a little bit, add the carrot and cook for a bit longer. Drain the lentils and add them, mix it all around then add the stock. Add more water if necessary, the lentils will soak up a lot. Bring this to the boil, then turn down and allow to simmer. Add the rest of the garlic and spices and a big dollop of tomato puree until the colour looks right. Then just let it cook away for ages, at least an hour, until the soup is thick and the lentils are mushy. Taste and add more spices or tomato puree if necessary while cooking. Fresh coriander is nice added near the end.
Tastes much better left overnight and reheated, or after frozen and reheated.
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I'm trying to be more careful and sensible with food, having put on this week the 2lbs I'd lost over the previous 2 weeks despite mostly eating sensibly and exercising. I'm a bit cheesed off about it, but have gone back to the dreaded weightwatchers online so I can be more methodical (and less in denial) about what I eat. I've also ordered a 28 day detox book, but I will wait until after Easter Sunday to do that so I can at least have an Easter egg and bottle of wine before I start.