I do not have a fetish for lentils. I simply have a strange love for them. Whenever I see them in a bowl, I recoil to my childhood. As a child I dreaded hearing the word ‘lentil’. It sounded like ‘clean up your room’, or ‘go to bed’. The first problem I saw with the lentils was that they could not be easily eaten with my hands (my principal tool for eating before the age of twelve). The second problem was the lentil’s appearance. As a child I could not believe something so brown, or so red, or so green, so simplistic, with no fat dripping, could taste so good.
Every time I was served a bowl of my mother’s lentils, they would stare at me. They would say to me, ‘pick-up a spoon. I dare yah.’ With courage I would eat a spoonful, then another. They would taste like the same dish my mom had previously made, and the time before that. Each dish loved just the same. This cycle of disbelief and belief, disdain and love, repeating year-after-year, created a nuanced love affair between lentils and me. An affair that has taken me places I never expected to go.
Ingredients
2 to 3 cups cooked Brown or Dupuy lentils. (recipe below)
½ cup red lentils (optional)
¼ cup olive oil (nice, but cheap)
¼ cup sherry vinegar
2 medium onions, diced.
1 teaspoon of cumin, more if necessary
1 small can of tomatoes, or 3 chopped Roma tomatoes (ripe-ripe)
1 small, dried chipotle (I will explain)
½ dried ancho (and I will explain)
Toppings (all optional, but necessary)
Fresh lime, cilantro, and sour cream or yogurt or crème fraiche
Basics lentils
No Salt! When cooking raw lentil, or other pulses, never add salt to the cooking water. The salt somehow prevents the lentils from softening (ask a biochemist why). Just add chunks of carrot, half an onion, some garlic cloves. It is a good idea to rinse them first. Most lentils take about 25-40 minutes to boil, so gage your water based on that time.
To test their doneness, remove a few lentils, blow on them, and put them in your mouth (or a friend’s mouth). They should have no resistance, like over cooked pasta. Strain them and spread them on a baking sheet or in a casserole dish. Immediately add salt and some olive oil. Taste them again. The lentil will soak up the salt and oil. Just don’t over season at this point. Tip, if the water reduces without the lentils being cooked, just add more.
Or buy a can.
Directions
Rehydrate chilis: when purchasing your dried chilis, they should be malleable, a little leather to them. Remove the seeds and keep them for another project. Place both chilis in a small pot of cold water and bring to a boil. This removes dirt and bitter tannins. I used to toast them in the oven before rehydrating (the proper procedure), but after repeated burning and tossing I stopped.
The chipotle gives an austere smoke, while the ancho provides a leathery dark fruit taste. Neither are hot-hot.
In a nice pot add the olive oil and onions. Toss in a heaping teaspoon of rock sea salt, or kosher salt. The salt helps the onions move along, and dissolve evenly.
Cook at med-high heat and stir with a wooden spoon, the onions should be swimming in a shallow bath of olive oil. If not, add some more oil or onions.
Once onions are translucent, add sherry vinegar. cook 2 -3 minutes to cook off the acidity.
Then add chopped tomatoes, cooked brown lentils, raw red lentils, chopped up Chipotle and Ancho. Fill with water until it is soupy (a bit of a tautology, but I have no other way of saying it).
Let it come to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Be sure to use your wooden spoon to stir every five minutes or so, scraping the bottom to prevent stick-ness.
After 30 minutes or so, the red lentils will begin to disintegrate and thicken the soup. Taste for salt and cumin, both should be present.
Using a hand blender, begin to puree. Make sure you hit the tomatoes and chunk of chilis. Or take half the soup with the tomatoes and the chilis and puree in a blender. Then add the puree back to the reserve. This gives a bit of a chowder feel to the soup.
The chilis should be present but not overbearing.
Serve with the squeeze of lime juice on top and cilantro leaves. And if desired, some sour cream.