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Like many cooks, my pantry is stocked with Italian olive oil, Japanese soy sauce, Indian spices, Mexican condiments, Chinese vinegar, and so much more. With such a variety of ingredients at hand, sometimes we end up with a kind of fusion cooking, whether we intend to or not. Take this lentil soup. It is clearly Italian in inspiration, with garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, parsley and Mediterranean herbs. And yet, I couldn’t resist including Asian elements from my pantry: soy sauce, miso, kombu and umeboshi vinegar, all ingredients I know to be spot on when it comes to building flavor in soups. Your Italian nonna might be spinning in her grave, but I bet she’d love this soup.
One Zuppa di Lenticchie recipe I looked at called for only five ingredients (other than salt and pepper): lentils, garlic, olive oil, parsley and tomatoes, and I’m sure it could be delicious. However, my recipe is a little more complicated. I consider soups to be a great way to get more veggies into my diet (sometimes I’m a reluctant vegetable eater–plain steamed veggies are not my cup of tea). This may be lentil soup, but it’s built of onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, sweet potatoes and kale–I’ve used lacinato (dino) kale, but use whatever green you fancy. As for seasoning, miso adds a kind of meaty heartiness that’s especially welcome in cold weather, and umeboshi vinegar and lemon juice are so useful in lightening the taste, that I almost never cook a bean dish which doesn’t employ them.
While this soup is Italian in inspiration, the great variety and versatility of lentils means that they are well represented in cuisines from Bombay to Guadalajara. Combine them with fresh ginger, turmeric and garam masala and serve with chapatis for an Indian meal, or go Mexican with cumin, chipotle, a garnish of avocado and salsa, and a pile of warm tortillas on the side (a recipe for a Oaxacan-style lentil main dish, traditionally served during lent, is here). Thin this soup a little if it’s to be a first course. For an even heartier main dish, stir in a cup of chopped, cooked chestnuts, or serve the soup over a piece of toasted whole grain bread. Cook it down a little bit and serve as a stew over brown rice. You get the idea, that pot at the end of the rainbow–it may just have been filled with lentils. (Full recipe after the jump)
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Clockwise from upper left: "French" lentils, red lentils, common green (sometimes "brown") lentils. Photo: user:Justinc via Wikipedia
