The Triple Threat: Spicy Tomato and Lentil Soup

*Everything in this blog that is red, is something new that I have never used or have done before.*

It all started with the thought of... The Tomato.

My best buddy, Andrew, had a hankerin' for some sort of tomato soup. For Christmas, I had recently bought him a cookbook with a multitude of low-fat and/or fat-free recipes. He has worked very hard to get his body in great shape and has lost quite a bit of weight over a period of months, so therefore, I bought him a healthy cookbook.

 Ladies, he's 20 years old, single, a scorpio, loves being active, and an all-around great guy who will treat you right and make you a great sandwich. You want a shot with him,

shoot me a comment, message, or Facebook me:
Jennifer Tillou (I'm the only Jennifer Tillou).

 ;)

Anyways...

Andrew had a hankerin' for some sort of tomato soup. He had a few recipes picked out and so after work I went down to his house, a few houses down from mine, and we decided to make "Spicy Tomato and Lentil Soup." The picture for this soup looked the best out of the 3 I had to choose from.

The first thing Andrew wanted to do was make a list he would need at the store. We went to Woodman's, "the grocery store of grocery stores", and we got everything we needed;
such as:
Fresh Ginger Root,
A pound of fresh Tomatoes,
A yellow Onion,
Sunflower oil,
Crushed Cumin seeds,
(We bought those whole because our only options were whole or ground)
Red Split Lentils,
(Lentils are a type of bean that you do not need to soak or cook all day)
Tomato Paste,
and lastly...
Vegetable Stock.

Before we started, I ran up to my house to grab fresh garlic, my food processor, and my special chopping knife. Once we got back to his house after the store, THE PREP BEGAN! I was in charge of chopping the onions, chopping the ginger root, and seeding the tomatoes. The recipe called for a pound of fresh tomatoes that were skinned and seeded. This was something I had never done before personally, but I had seen the technique on t.v. many times before. It also helped that the cookbook told us how to do this properly, as well. We had to bring a pot of water to a boil to submerge the tomatoes in for 30 seconds. We counted to 30 in tandem. Then we took each tomato out of the boiling water and shocked it in a pot of very cold water. After that was done, we dug our finger nails into the tomatoes to peel the very thin layer of skin off of them. (Don't worry, we washed our hands many times during the making of this soup.) I was having trouble peeling the skin because I really don't have nails to dig in with, so Andrew peeled the tomatoes and I started the seeding process by using a spoon to scrape the seeds out, ever-so-lightly. Then I chopped the remaining tomatoes up and put them in a bowl.

In the meantime, Andrew started to try to crush the whole cumin seeds. The recipe called for crushed cumin. Our only options were ground or whole. So we went with whole. Little did we know that it would be so difficult to find a way to crush the whole cumin seeds. I made suggestions that he tried, like the butt of a wooden spoon and his mom, Mary Jo, suggested to use a wooden meat mallet. Then, Andrew came up with an idea that was molded by a stroke of genius. After trying numerous kitchen utensils, he went for,

wait for it...
wait for it..
wait.

HIS COFFEE GRINDER!
(Which I bought him for his birthday this year!)

It worked perfectly and would give the soup that spicy little kick. The cumin smelled like it belonged in chili. Which it usually is used in chili. I never really knew that and neither did he because we both decided that it belonged in chili.

Another new ingredient I had never cooked with fresh was the ginger root. We only needed an inch of it. Literally, an inch. It smelled amazing. Like lemon. The freshest of lemon. It was such a happy smell. It was kind of tough to chop but I am...

The Chopper!
>>Insert Evil Laugh Here<<

Once everything was done being prepped, the adventure began. Andrew fired up the stove and added the sunflower oil (a healthy alternative to olive oil or canola oil) to the hot, deep soup pan. Once the oil was nice and hot, I added my finely chopped onion. He cooked the onion until it became soft and slightly translucent. From there we added the chopped garlic, ginger, and cumin.

Once that had all cooked together for a few minutes, Andrew added the red split lentils and I added the chopped tomatoes simultaneously.

Beautiful colors!

He let that cook for a few more minutes then he added about two Tablespoons of tomato paste. (The recipe only called for one Tablespoon but we put just about two. Because we can.) I added the (unsalted- Andrews decision) vegetable stock. The recipe called for five cups of chicken or vegetable stock, but it wasn't until we got home that the vegetable stock we had bought, only contained four cups and not five.

Oh well. No bigs.
:)

Once the soup came to a boil, Andrew turned the flame down on the stove and we let the soup simmer for a half an hour. To pass the time, we admired just about every recipe in the cookbook I had bought him that he seemed to have fallen in love with. From pastas to salads and to desserts and breads.

Now for the fun part.
:D

We turned the flame off on the stove and poured our simmered soup into the food processor. Suddenly, the liquid of the soup started leaking out of the food processor from every which-way. The blade seemed to be too shallow and therefore, the liquid of the soup came out from under the blade and leaked out onto the kitchen counter. It looked like puke. Yes puke. And honestly, it kind of made me nauseous. So as Andrew's and my eyes grew bigger because of the mess we had begun to make, we each took ten seconds (felt like a minute) to figure out what to do next.

Do we just go for it as fast as we can and make an even BIGGER mess or do we use paper towels to sop up the dripping mess and then go for it? 


DUN! DUN! DUN!

Andrew grabbed a few paper towels and wrapped it around the food processor with his hands holding them in place. I secured the food processor lid and pressed "On" while he proceeded to hold the towels in place. We stopped, he changed the paper towels, and I pressed "On" one more time. We agreed that that was enough. When we were done processing the soup, I tried to unlock the part of the processor which held our processed soup. When I got close to having it unlocked, more soup mess came out. So Andrew pretty much said, "Watch out!" and picked up the whole processor and poured it back into the pan. We turned the flame back on to bring it to a simmer to heat the soup back up. While the soup heated back up, we cleaned up our soupy/pukey-looking mess. And cleaned up the food processor and it's parts.
 (For those of you that care about the food processors' well-being, it was cleaned up and is looking good as new.)

Then the soup came to a slight boil and we turned off the flame and We. Were. Done!

Andrew took down two very pretty, clean, white glass bowls and he poured our soup into the bowls.
I snapped a few pictures and Voila!

End Result: Spicy Tomato and Lentil Soup.

When the soup was all done, we were ready to eat.

Without even mentioning anything, Andrew pulled down some crushed red pepper flakes from the cupboard and added a sprinkle of black pepper. That thought never even crossed my mind. It was that extra "beauty" and extra "taste" component. Or better yet, the cherry on top of a perfect sundae. (Even though I don't like cherries but bear with me. You know what I mean.) We each salted our bowl of soup to each of our own likings and it was nothing short of awesome.

 It was a perfect dish for the winter time.

The memory it brought to my mind was something like we had just got home from sledding and it was very cold outside. This soup would be ready on the stove and ready to be eaten to warm each of us up. My only warning to you people who do not like spicy foods, this dish may not be for you. I thought that it was perfectly spicy, but that's my own personal opinion. Andrew likes crazy amounts of spicy.

Also, usually I am that person that needs something to drink while I am eating; no matter what food it is. But I didn't want a drink with this soup. It was perfect.

But like I said, the spice was not over-bearing whatsoever, and it will definitely clear up your sinuses. Andrew can agree with this statement because after he was done eating, he had to blow his nose.

This was a great soup and a great time.

I conquered 4 new foods and 1 new technique with 1 new recipe. I have Andrew to thank along with his mom for letting us cook at their house.

Remember:
Chew. Digest. Be :).