After a modest investment of time this morning—chopping onions, peeling and dicing fresh ginger, measuring spices—a pot of red lentil soup bubbles on the stove and the kitchen smells amazing. So there will be something hot, healthy, and delicious to dig into when I finish frosting my cookies.
SING A SONG OF SOUP
Lentils, onions, ginger, spice
make a hearty soup in winter
Raid the pantry, peel and dice
Lentils, onions, ginger, spice
Let it simmer, steam some rice
Grab a bowl and call it dinner
Lentils, onions, ginger, spice
make a hearty soup in winter
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JUST JOAN 42 
Now that warms my soul
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Thanks, Joyce. Something spicy and savory always sounds good on a cold, rainy day. Especially when my taste buds are restless from all the sweets, cookies, fudge, hot cocoa, etc. 🙂
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Looks delicious.
A good “tadka” of dried red chillies, bay leaves and five spices in hot oil will make it heavenly .
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That sounds divine, PB. I can’t wait to try it. I have Chinese-style ground five-spice, will that work? To serve, do you just drizzle the flavored oil over the hot dahl? 🙂
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Roast bay leaves, dried red chillies whole (couple), black pepper (optional). The five spice we use is bought from Indian grocery stores (cumin seed, fennel seed, yellow mustard seed, kalonji, I forgot the fifth one) along with diced onions. Then pour the Boiling lentil soup on the hot roasted spice and oil, being careful not to splatter. A good roasting should result in few sneezes😂😂 once you pour the liquid.
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We have a small Indian store nearby (connected to our favorite Indian restaurant)… perhaps they have the mysterious five-spice blend I need. 🙂
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Luckily I have the packet. Sold by a company called DEEP. It is called Panchpuran.
Ingredients : Nigella Sativa(no idea what it is but I think it must be Kalonji or kaljeera – black in color, as I know the other four ingredients), Cumin seed, Fenugreek seeds, Yellow mustard seeds, Fennel seeds.
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. . . this message brought to you by the Lentil Growers of America. Your poem would make a good ad, I think. And lentils don’t get enought publicity these days.
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Lentil Growers of America may be a shrinking entity, Tippy. You have to get on your hands and knees to find them, on the bottom shelf at the grocery store. Lentils are often accused of tasting “earthy” (read: like dirt), so they’re right up there in popularity with beets and rutabagas. But the spices and aromatics in this recipe cover up that earthiness and make them downright appealing. Lentils are full of fiber, too, something we can all use more of. So go get yourself a bag! We now return to our regularly scheduled programming… 🙂
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I like lentils, including the earthy taste. When I lived in Turkey, I would buy them from a street vendor. They dye their lentils different colors, I guess to make them look more appealing.
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Like red and green Christmas lentils? Cool! 🙂
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There were reds, yellows, oranges, and greens, as I recall. They don’t celebrate Christmas in Turkey. And, ironically, they don’t even celebrate Thanksgiving.
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Lentils are staple in many Indian households.
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I was green with ginger dal envy there was no fresh ginger left the smell was so intoxicating.
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I’ve made a run to the store and replenished the fresh ginger, no need for envy. 🙂
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I wonder what kind of soup Robert Frost would have made.
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Interesting question… Frost was a New Englander and they like their bean suppahs and clam chowdah, so probably one of those. His wife made it, I suppose… he was always busy watching it snow in other peoples’ woods and deciding which road not to take and stuff. 🙂
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Musical and delicious. I like it!
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Thanks, Lana. Lentils are cousins to beans, so they are definitely musical. 🙂
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yowzers, that looks soooooooooo good!
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