CTN: Lentil "Soup"

The fact this lentil soup was made in time for today's blog post is a miracle. I had no time on the weekend, and the week was looking bad for cooking. A last-minute cancellation of our usual Wednesday Girl Scout meeting meant I had time to get this done. It was actually a bigger project than I expected when I read the recipe, although pretty straightforward. The procurement of the lentils, however, was a story about the oddity of people.

I started working for Jim Hoey on 2/15/1989. Twenty three years ago. On Valentine's Day, Jim decided we would go out for lunch. We went to a new natural foods restaurant--which is next door to a natural foods store. I told Jim I was going to duck in there and see if they had red lentils. They had crimson lentils--$5.00 for a tiny bag. I bought them, and gave them a prominent place on the lunch table so I wouldn't forget them.

We got to talking, I lost my focus on the lentils, and the bus boy came to clear the table. I clearly remember that it was strange that the only thing left on the table after he left was my water glass. This seemed vaguely wrong, but my mind was not connecting the dots. When I got back to the office, I realized that he had cleared my lentils. I called the restaurant and asked if they had them. They did, and they would be waiting for me at the counter.

I went back a few hours later, only to be told that a man "wearing a suit, balding, and with glasses," came in and picked them up "for you." Nobody I knew. Honestly--who does that? Who sees a bag of lentils behind the counter at a restaurant and says "Those are my lentils, can you please give them to me?" Really?!

So I spent $10 on the lentils. They had better be good.

And I thought they were. This wasn't soup at all. This was lentils and rice. With onions. Lots of onions. Since I'm not a fan of onions at all, I was skeptical that I would enjoy this with all of the onions. Since the onions were caramelized, they were really good. They weren't crispy, but they were pretty darn tasty. I enjoyed the mix of spices (including the cinnamon stick, which apparently wasn't a favorite of Maria or Michelle). I made the buttery flat bread suggested as an accompaniment. Yum. Natalie and Cassandra also liked this. Pete, who again came home late after having dinner with Samantha, thought the house smelled terrible (the onions, I guess). 

And the leftovers were delicious for breakfast, as Melissa suggested.

My photography still needs work.  I tried to make this look beautiful. Not.

My ingredients. Note the tiny $5 bag of lentils. And I used the greens that came in my CSA bag.

This is A LOT of ginger!

And a lot of onions!

Bonus pictures:  Cassandra's cheese plate and my favorite new vegetable-the romanesco. A perfect example of a fractal and the Fibonacci number. Too perfect to eat. I'm obsessed with this vegetable.

(On  a side note, I can't figure out how to position photos where I want them to be. It is annoying me.)