Team Bettendorf in Missouri

Roman Lentil Soup

What you need:

3 med onions or 3 leeks

3 carrots

2 T butter

2T EVOO

2 q beef or chicken stock

2 c red or brown lentils (orange/red ones turn to mush)

Several sprigs of thyme

1/2 t dried peppercorns

1/4 lemon juice or whey

sea salt or fish sauce and pepper

piima cream (sour cream)

First you measure out the lentils.  Turns out that a bag of lentils is just about 2 cups.  How nice.

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Then we covered the lentils with water and left them to soak for 7 hours.  When we checked them 7 hours later all the water was gone!!  Who knew those little things would absorb so much.

I sauteed the onions and carrots for 30 minutes.  This smelled good.

Then it was time to add the chicken stock and lentils.  Here is the chicken stock I stole out of the roaster oven.  I am trying a new system with the stock.  I am leaving the bones in the roaster and adding more water each time I take some out.  My stock always is so strong.  I bet I can "milk" those bones for more quarts of stock.

I let the lentils and stock simmer for 30 minutes.  You can see the thyme sprigs floating on the left.

Now after I blended the soup it turned into something that looks like it came out the back end of a baby.  Not pleasant at all.  It was NOT visually appealing.  The taste did not follow the look but it wasn't very tasty.  It may have been the thyme.  It may have been the texture.  Maybe it was my bias toward the other lentil soup I make.  I mistakenly thought that since I liked the other lentil soup I would enjoy this as well. 

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So I tried to salvage it by adding cumin, cocoa and baby spinach.  It also needs ALOT of salt.

All in all I was not pleased and no one in the family was excited about this meal.  If you decide to try this please post a link in the comments here.  Maybe you know of other ways to doctor this meal up and make it yummy.  Post that info as well.

Thanks for cooking along with me. :)

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{ 11:36, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 } { Posted by mommaofmany }

My daughter was reading over my shoulder and asked me please, not to make that! I'll be interested to read what others may do with the recipe.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with just using NT principles and "fixing" the recipes you love! Have you tried the other lentil recipe NT-fixed?

Momma

suggestion

{ 12:34, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 } { Posted by motherearth }

maybe you can salvage it and make it into bean burritos? anything has to be better with salsa, cheese, tomatoes and lettuce on top all wrapped up in a flour tortilla. Unless it isn't thick enough, could you mash the beans to make it thicker? huh, I'll have to play with the lentil recipe, I'm not a huge fan of bean soup so.....oh, I like the stalk idea! Thanks for sharing.

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{ 12:41, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 } { Posted by Anonymous }

Hey Katie,
I am so thankful you are doing this cook along. I have had my nourishing Traditions cook book for a year and haven’t done much with it. (I have done the kefir, and soaking grains, but haven’t tried many main dish or soup recipes yet.)
Anyway, I made this soup yesterday. I decided to cook some all natural bacon and crumbled it, so my kids could sprinkle some over their soup. Also, we added a spoon of sour cream on the top of each one. Half of the family liked it, the other half didn’t. You’re right, the color isn’t very pleasant:0)
Margaret
homeschoolblogger/untohim

Hey

{ 03:27, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 } { Posted by Chas }

Hey Katie!
I just finished our Soup...
I saw your post that it didn't taste to well and so I started adding garlic and onion powder and garlic powder and this and that...
And yes it is TERRIBLE to look at, but we put a little sour cream in ours and it made it mighty tasty!
The sour cream made a BIG difference! :)
I will post my pics a little later!
Love,
Chas

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{ 03:47, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 } { Posted by Glammon }

Okay, I didn't really love the soup the night we had it for dinner, but I had it warmed up for lunch today and thought it was much better. Maybe the flavors blended as it sat in the fridge or maybe I was just really hungry today. Who knows. However, it was fun to make and appreciate you doing the cook along.
Thank you!
~Gretchen
http://www.homesteadblogger.com/FarmGirl/73041

I didn't try this yet but,

{ 01:25, Wednesday, October 17, 2007 } { Posted by Anonymous }

Lemon, squirted over the bowl, and dollop of natural yogurt, always makes any lentil dish I've tried much better. Yummy even.

We have collectively seen too many newborn diapers to evaluate colors indiscriminately, LOL!!!

HordeMomy

Untitled Comment

{ 12:22, Wednesday, October 17, 2007 } { Posted by Robyn }

We eat lentils and rice at least once per week, and I always add a large can of crushed tomatoes to ours. It really adds a lot of flavor and some sweetness.

I wonder if you didn't like it because it was pureed? I personally hate pureed soups and need to have some texture to avoid gagging. :-)

We always leave our lentils whole, and I also add a whole bag of brown rice to cook with the lentils, so that helps give it more texture.

We love having the leftovers in the fridge; you can make many different dishes from the leftovers. One recipe we like is to shape the leftovers into patties, coat with a little flour and brown in a skillet for yummy lentil burgers. I serve them like meatloaf, with ketchup on top and mashed potatoes on the side.