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delishytown:

Golden Lentil Soup

I went to the store yesterday looking for something beautiful to cook. I found these ‘Petite Golden Lentils’ in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. Right away I thought of a Persian soup I used to get in Chicago. Yum! The version we got in Chicago was red, made with red lentils and tomatoes.

My goal was to keep the golden color of these lentils in my finished soup. So I used as many white, yellow & light colored ingredients as I had, including turmeric, fenugreek and white pepper.

From the garden I picked a Meyer lemon and some Sun Gold tomatoes, which are still growing due to our unusually warm winter. This is great, except the global warming part. I’m very concerned that we still have a 2 tomato plants producing fruit in Feb, but I’m not going to take it out on the tomato plants by getting rid of them. I digress. This kind of soup needs tomatoes, and sun golds are very yellow - gold. However, since they’re winter tomatoes, the skins are tough (cold nights cause tough ‘mater skins). I cooked them down in a little water and ran them through a food mill to remove the skins & seeds. (Garden tip: I threw the seeds and pulp from the food mill onto a sunny spot in the garden hoping for volunteer tomato plants.)

Sumac was the main ingredient that added a more reddish brown cast, but you can’t really make this Persian soup without the lemony sumac flavor.

In a soup pot, sauté 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2 chopped carrots and 2 stalks chopped celery, salt & pepper. Wash lentils. Once your veggies become translucent, add lentils to the pot with 1 carton veggie or chicken stock and a can of whole peeled tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp sumac, 1 bay leaf, and 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek. Simmer until all the ingredients are cooked. Garnish with a sprinkle of sumac, lemon zest and a fresh squeeze of lemon juice. This came out delicious!!