After a lot of travelling, we were finally home all weekend. Despite the warm, sunny weather I really felt like spending a day cooking. I miss cooking so much when I'm not here. On Sunday I made the mocha cookies, banana bread, wild rice casserole, two soups, and Sunday dinner (salmon in phyllo, pan fried sunchokes, and stewed green beans). We didn't eat dinner until almost 9 o'clock and my feet were killing me by the end, but it was fun and I love starting the week with so many of our meals already prepared. Given everything I was working on, I was really pleased by how easy this lentil soup recipe sounded. I love ginger but absolutely hate grating it, so I was thrilled that it only needed to be coarsely chopped because it was going to be pureed anyway. The soup came together very quickly, and was ready in not much more than hour. Paul pureed it using the immersion blender and put it away. The next night when I took it out to serve dinner, I realized that the immersion blender just wasn't enough. There were still large pieces of orange rind, cloves, etc., floating in the soup. I put the soup in the real blender and blended it until it was very uniform. This, I think, is my only complaint about the soup. I thought the extra blending was necessary because of the large pieces of aromatics, but I much prefer my soup with some texture. When I'm eating lentil soup I like to be able to distinguish the lentils. This had a great flavor, but I just wasn't a big fan of the smooth texture. I think if I made this again I might zest the orange and grate the ginger to make the pureeing step less necessary.
Looks delicious, inspiring ... i must try to pair lentils with oranges & ginger sometime
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Jora, you were cooking up a storm on the weekend - respect. Somehow I always manage to get things done only at the very last possible moment. Be that as it may, how nice that you enjoyed this Lentil Soup and I must agree with you, chunky is better when it comes to lentil soups, I opted to purée only a portion of the soup and it certainly does look more pleasing to the eye but I am sure that it tastes wonderful either way. So nice to see that you found the time to participate!
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend!
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ReplyDeleteWow, I hear about other bloggers having cooking day... I've just never done that, probably good because I have a bad back. I found the whole pureeing thing annoying. I think if the herbs were grinded and the orange just zested it would have had the same great flavor with a lot less work and it would have looked nicer.
ReplyDeleteBusy busy. I love having food already ready for the week too, but it's been a while since I was organized enough to make it happen. Well done you.
ReplyDeleteYou had a busy time of cooking. Your soup looks delicious. Hope you have a good weekend.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a busy kitchen day! It is nice to be able to spend time in your own kitchen after being away, I don't blame you! Everything sounds terrific!
ReplyDeleteYou were busy! But I am sure you were feeling really good all week when you had so much food ready to go! Wow!
ReplyDeleteI had the same issue with this soup. The immersion blender didn't do anything to those whole spices, and I met every single one on my spoon. I do prefer my lentil soup chunky, so I'm not sure how to deal with the spices and have the preferred texture. Probably will just move on to another recipe next time. (So nice to see you after a long time.)
ReplyDeleteI think there is something in the air (snow, actually lately) where I have been cooking quite a bit as well. Funny because usually I am more compelled when the weather turns cold rather than as Spring is upon us- but I have enjoyed the process nonetheless, as has my family. FFWD's is always an adventure and we did enjoy this soup. I would not have tried the citrus or ginger combo were it not for Dorie's recipe.
ReplyDeleteI used ginger powder and really cut my orange pieces into tiny slices for the very reason you mentioned. I like my lentil soup chunky but did not want to be biting on a peppercorn or an orange peel. I used an immersion blender, ate the entire batch myself over the course of a week, and never tasted anything but a lovely chunky lentil soup. I admire your day-of-cooking. Bravo. I have never made sunchokes before but keep reading about it so would like to try them. Pan-fried sunchokes, hmmm.
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