I love cooking. With a special friend, on summer afternoons, with my boyfriend D, in New York winter nights, and by myself too, of course!
My sister sings in the shower; Dad types words on his computer's keyboard with Buddhist concentration.
Outside, -2ºC.
D, rehearsing.
Inside the just-arrived Netflix envelope, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
What we need in this house tonight is a soup.
It's been a couple of weeks that I bought a package of red lentils and have been avoiding the challenge. No, they're not hard to handle; they're just new to me.
As usual, I look up in the internet a few different recipes. From there, I basically come up with something simple, something that I can do with what I have at home, something my family would like, something interesting to try.
Suddenly, during my 10-minute Google search tonight, I found an Indian-style soup: red lentils, curry, coriander, turmeric, tomatoes, spinach, potatoes, greek yogurt... That just had to be it. D loves Indian food. Besides, he has been, for the last couple of days, taking such good care of me, overwhelmed by PMS, followed by all kinds of cramps, and cravings! He definitely deserves a surprise-soup tonight.
Now, the idea was to make it a bit more Brazilian. The spinach became collard greens; the potatoes became tropical chayote.
Is that more Brazilian? Oh, well, here it is:
Ingredients:
1lb of Red lentils (chief lentils are the most common kind)
Chicken/vegetable stock or water
1 cup of tomato puree
1 medium chayote, cut into cubes
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 cups of frozen collard greens (or fresh, even better!, but then sauté them with onions before adding to the soup)
Olive oil
1/2 tablespoon of ground coriander seeds
1 tablespoon of curry powder (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon of turmeric
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Method:
Sort the lentils and briefly wash them with cold water.
Put them, along with the chayote, in a pot with water (or stock) enough to cover them (add more if necessary) and simmer until lentils are tender (about 20 minutes).
In a frying pan, sauté the onion and garlic, with olive oil, and add the spices (coriander, curry, turmeric).
Tranfer mixture to the pot with the lentils.
Simmer for about 10 minutes and add the collard greens.
Season to taste.
Serve in individual bowls with a dollop of greek yogurt, a candle burning and a glass of red wine.
Delicious!
Spicy and savory.
