Presidents Day: Meals Fit for a King

After some recent travel to France, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, and California, we're back on our menu-making schedule. And that always includes soup...yay! Yesterday, "Bob" made a favorite entree: pork loin with a mustard-rub, which was discussed before here. That was accompanied by smashed potatoes (recipe here) and a tossed salad with balsamic vinaigrette (finally recorded in this post). And today, we had a beautiful new soup.

"Bob" started with our basic vegetable stock recipe (which, after a quick search of this blog, I just realized that I never recorded here before). He then turned that into a gorgeous red lentil soup; amazingly enough, we had the red lentils on hand because I bought them--impulsively--at the supermarket a few months ago.

Vegetable Stock

1 unpeeled onion, roughly chopped

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 stalks of celery (again, roughly chopped)

2 parsnips (yup, you guessed it, roughly chopped)

1 handful of fresh parsley (leaves and stems)

1 or 2 sprigs of fresh dill

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 piece of fresh ginger chopped into very large pieces

Directions

1. Add above ingredients to 2 gallons of water.

2. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.

3. Simmer partially covered until reduced by one third (approximately 1 hour).

4. Strain and cool.

Red Lentil Soup with Parsley and Shallots

Serves 10 to 12

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspooon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

5 cups vegetable stock

1.25 cups red lentils

1 can (14 oz) chopped tomatoes

3 shallots, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

2/3 cup plain yogurt (approx. 1 tablespoon per serving)

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Put cumin and coriander in a saute pan and cook over high heat until the spices just start to smoke. Remove from heat and add turmeric. Set aside.

2. In a large stock pot, heat olive oil and saute garlic and onion until tender (approximately 5 minutes). Add spice mixture and cook for 2 more minutes.

3. Add 5 cups of stock to pot. Bring to boil and simmer.

4. Meanwhile, rinse lentils and add to stock pot. Bring all to a boil, then simmer over medium to low heat.

5. Cook for approximately 20 minutes, add tomatoes and cook for 5 more minutes. Then remove from heat and puree (with an immersion blender is ideal).

6. Spoon into bowls and top with dollop of yogurt seasoned with minced parsley and salt and pepper. Garnish with pan fried sliced shallots.

Aside from our globe-trotting, I've also been working with homemade yogurt and packaging (for friends and family) our spices from Morocco: curry, cumin, and ground saffron. Honestly, the spices are a bit on the bland side..the souks probably blended them with sawdust for we gullible tourists.