Recipe: Red Lentil Soup with Harissa Paste and Smoked Hot Paprika

I’ve been under the weather lately, and between that and all the sugar I’ve been forced to ingest just through tasting what I’m baking for the holidays, I am – for once – craving the savory and the spicy instead my usual sweet.

This Red Lentil Soup with Harissa Paste and Smoked Hot Paprika has become my latest favorite thing and replacement for chicken soup whilst sick.

It’s based on this recipe from Epicurious, but I decided to up the spices by finally putting to use the harissa paste I got at PFI quite some time ago.

Harissa is a North African spice paste or sauce that is made from chili peppers and can be spiced with cumin, caraway, coriander and/or garlic.

Between that and some lovely smoked hot Spanish paprika...

...this is a delicious spicy soup without having so much heat as to be unpleasant. I haven’t had much use for either of these ingredients prior to this (can’t remember what I bought them for in the first place), but now that I’ve used them successfully, it’s like it gives me some context for what they can do, and I think they can both be very useful for adding a tolerable amount of heat with some complexity of flavor.

As noted, the recipe calls for Roasted Vegetable Stock, specifically the Mark Bittman kind (scroll down about halfway through the page in that link for the recipe). If you are not into making stock, this might seem an excessive extra step, one that takes this soup from relatively quick to an all-afternoon endeavor.

But I must insist! I’ve found the combo of the umami of the mushrooms and the carmelization of the roasted vegetables in the stock gives a depth and body to this all veggie-soup that could otherwise be a bit watery-tasting.

The stock is a great investment of time and worth doing and then storing in the freezer just so you can whip up a soup like this.

Speaking of the freezer, this soup makes up a big old batch and the soup freezes well, so make one pot and eat off it for a while. Just note: freezing can make the heat of spices increase, so you might want to take it to about 80% of where you like spicy-wise it if you plan to freeze so as to avoid losing the subtlety of the other flavors.

(Note: this was a half batch so your raw ingredient qty will look larger based on the below recipe.)

Red Lentil Soup with Harissa Paste and Smoked Hot Paprika

(Makes about 10-12 servings)

• 2 Tbl olive oil
• 2 large or 3 medium onions, chopped
• 4 carrots, diced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, drained and liquid reserved
• 6-8 garlic cloves, chopped (depending on how big the garlic cloves are and/or how much you like garlic)
• 2-3 Tbl tomato paste (start low and add more to make a richer flavor if needed)
• 2-3 tsp harissa paste (start low and add more depending on your tolerance/preference for spice)
• 2 tsp cumin (my brand of Harissa paste did not have cumin in it; if yours does, you might want to cut back a little until you have the chance to taste it)
• ½ tsp hot Spanish paprika
• 2 cups red lentils
• 4 cups Roasted Veggie Stock
• 4 cups water
• Kosher salt to taste
• Lemon wedges (optional)

1. Heat the olive oil in a 4-5 quart pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until the onions are soft and have lost the raw smell (about 5 minutes or so).
2. Add the carrots, celery, diced tomato solids, garlic, cumin, paprika, tomato and harissa pastes and a hearty pinch of kosher salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened a bit (about 7 minutes).
3. Add the lentils, stock, water and reserved tomato liquid. Bring to a simmer and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes. Stir and taste every five minutes or so, adding more salt, spice, harissa paste and/or tomato paste if needed to taste. Cook until lentils are tender and serve.
4. If desired, squeeze a bit of lemon juice onto soup just before serving (if freezing, do not add lemon juice until serving).

Recipe Result: Kale with Sauteed Apples and Onions

My new thing with my Uncanny Knack for Recipe Selection is picking one that seems really really sketch to my inner six-year-old. This recipe for Kale with Sauteed Apples and Onions from Epicurious is an example of this. Kale? With apples? And curry powder? What? The six-year-old shudders.

Nevertheless, I tried it earlier this year and enjoyed it, and so made it again when the Prez was in town. She enjoyed it but thought the flavor could use a bit more pop. I might have underseasoned/salted OR a slight bit of acid (vinegar, lemon juice) might have helped bring out a bit more oomph.

But I enjoyed it both times, personally, just as is. For me, without much meat eating of late, I found that the curry powder added a bit of the kind of flavor that a little bit of animal fat maybe would have added. Then again, what do I know about meat and meat-related flavorings?

I guess to be more accurate, I will say that many vegetable dishes made without, say, bacon or even butter can sometimes have a sort of watery thinness that is ultimately dissatisfying. This, though, felt more interesting and complex, ergo more satisfying.

The curry powder I used was from India Tree, and this might also be a factor to the success of the dish. Their particular mix of turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, pepper, cardamom, mace, mustard seed, and cloves worked very well.

I made this dish with a Cap’n Ahab dish, tuna marinated in olive oil and mint on top of a bed of red onions cooked forever with red wine and finished with honey and red wine vinegar. The Prez was underwhelmed also with that dish, while I am completely obsessed with it and want to eat it every five minutes. I thought the kale actually worked well as a side for it, which surprised me as the curry seemed like it could be an odd note.

(There's also a mushroom risotto on there, but the mushrooms were rubbery and I forgot to salt the dish early enough.  Not successful.  BUT!  I made it on the fly, which for me is an accomplishment.)

Black Beans a la Russ Parsons, Take One

OMG HAVE YOU HEARD FOOD PRICES ARE REALLY BAD!?!

I don’t watch the news and get all of my current event information from sporadically listening to Marketplace and BBC Newspod podcasts while washing my dishes.

Marketplace and the BBC are not exactly like your local newscast, i.e., not especially melodramatic or fear-mongering.  Nevertheless, during the three hours or so (this is actually NOT one of my patented ridiculous exaggerations) it took me to clean up from the babycake bake-a-thon, I listened to so much dire news about the state of the world’s food supply that I started to get that special kind of mild, vague anxiety that only the news can give you.

In response, I decided to make a pot of beans from the black beans I already had in my pantry.  Nothing calms me down faster than eating like a peasant, and this would kill two birds with one stone in that I would be eating an inexpensive food that I had actually already paid for.

I had heard, in happier podcasting, a KCRW Good Food Market Report (first audio clip on page)in which L.A. Times food writer Russ Parsons explains how he makes black and other dried beans.  There’s also more info about his thoughts at the eGullet Forums section on Dried Beans.  (Unfortunately the link doesn't seem to want to take you to the actual Russ Parsons post, but the one with the most bean-prep info appears to be his response from Feb 3 2004, 11:24 AM, so you can scroll down the page to click on the post from the tree view.)

Here are some of his bean tips:

He recommends not soaking.  His research led him to believe the benefits people assume come from soaking (minimizing of bean-induced gassiness, shorter cooking time) might not necessarily always be true.  He says cooking time with freshly dried beans isn’t really impacted very much from soaking.  Discard the soaking liquid might get rid of some of the troublesome complex sugars (alpha-galactosides), but you also lose the flavorful broth and you’re not doing anything about the fiber which can have the same effect.  Eating beans regularly usually takes care of that anyway and beans are good for you, so there.

He also says that salting only at end is a “misconception,” and you should do “a little at beginning, a little in the middle” and of course to make final seasoning adjustments before seasoning so that the flavor of the bean is seasoned all the way through.

He generally uses about 6 cups of water and 1 teaspoon salt per pound of beans and recommends using only the minimum amount of water necessary.

He uses a closed pot method that he starts on the stove, bringing it to a simmer, then he sticks it in the oven at 350.

The time will be dependent on age of bean.  A freshly dried bean might only take 45 minutes, older beans, up to two hours.  Blow on a bean to see if its skin wrinkles to test if it’s done (or taste it, of course).  After they are done, take off heat and leave covered for 20 minutes to finish the cooking.

He notes that putting dried chipotles in to give the beans a smoky, meaty flavor even though they are vegetarian. 

I followed his advice with regard to the not soaking and adding salt and chipotle, but I used a slow cooker.  They were nice, not transcendent, so I think I will try again using his full method once I have a proper pot. 

The chipotle flavor was a nice addition; I think next time I will use more (used about three for two lbs.).  For summer BBQ’s with veggie friends, beans prepared that way might be a good centerpiece to a dish to help give them a heartier smoky BBQ experience.

Link Round-Up: Eating Right in 2008

Okay kids, the fun is almost over.  For most people in this country, holiday eating hit its peak on Tuesday, and will start to decline through the New Year, at which point our guilt and shame will kick in and we’ll make lots of plans to fix how we eat.

Or at least that’s the clichéd version of American holiday eating…I actually feel like because of the time off from the 2367 jobs, I was eating less during the holidays since I wasn’t stress-eating to get through my over-packed day.  And, I have to say, this little website project has made me more excited about cooking (it’s always more fun to cook for more people, even if it’s virtually and just to recount your experience), so really, I’m rolling into 2008 without my usual load of guilt and shame.  Check me out!

Nevertheless, I can still improve and losing some weight is always a good idea for me, so I put together a Link Round-Up of some healthy diet links – both diet in the sense of what you eat everyday regarding of weight status, and in the sense of wanting to weigh less. 

How to Eat

• How to Eat in Seven Words – advice from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  Those seven words?  "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
• Dr. Weil also has a great and concise resource - I’ve linked to this in the past - that’s called The Anti-Inflammatory Diet.  It has some excellent basic information.
• Epicurious has a short article on healthy eating, including some nutrition guidelines and links to resources, like the Tufts University Health and Nutrition Newsletter and, for the parents out there, a Feeding Kids Newsletter written by a dietician.

What to Eat/Pantry Stocking

• What to Eat by Marion Nestle – I haven’t read the book yet, but I listened to this podcast from KUOW’s Speakers Forum and decided I really would like to.  In the podcast, she describes how readers of her first book, Food Politics, expressed to her at readings and signings that they wished the book told them what to eat.  As a New Yorker who didn’t do her shopping in large supermarkets, she didn’t quite understand what their confusion was about…until it took her at least three visits to the grocery store just to get adequate data to compare the seven different types of romaine available at one market.  The book is supposed to be an aisle-by-aisle analysis of the grocery store to help empower you to make the best possible decisions.
• Yahoo has a list of “127 Foods that Fight Fat.” Well, not exactly, Yahoo.  More like some lower-calorie options for common foods.  However, keeping some of these options in the forefront of your mind when shopping might help you make good choices.
• Eating Well has a feature on stocking your pantry for eating healthy in a hurry.
• Dr. Weil’s advice on Pantry Stocking and some background on the Science of Nutrition to help clarify the "why" behind the "what."   
• Here’s my own little addition: my list of the 14 Top Healthy Foods based on my cross-referenced review of several recent lists and articles.
• And if all this healthy eating seems a bit expensive, here's an MSN story on eating healthy and organic on just $7 a day. (Spoiler: It helps if, like me, your peasant genes give you a natural affinity for beans.)
  

How to Cook

• Eating Well has Quick (under 30 minutes) and Ultra-Quick (under 20 minutes) recipes.
• Some cooking tips from Dr. Weil.
  

What to Eat When Eating Out

• Eating Well has a couple of sets of tips for eating in restaurants; nothing earth-shattering, but some good reminders. Set 1 and Set 2. 
• Lifehacker has a link to a chart comparing the calorie count and fat of various fast food options.  If you are out and about, sometimes that is your only option, so this is one way to minimize the damage.
• Lifehacker also has link to another article about how to lessen the impact of fast food eating. 
• And this has been making the rounds forever, but just in case you think Chipotle is a less-fattening option, you might want to confirm that by checking out the calorie content of your favorite burrito.

Miscellaneous Tips and Techniques for Weight Loss & Weight Maintenance
(Note – this is weight maintenance for those who have a tendency to put on the pounds, as opposed to quick-metabolism’d people who have trouble keeping weight on. )

• Body + Soul’s article on “Mastering Your Metabolism” which takes the anti-inflammation angle and applies it to weight loss and gain.
• Body + Soul also has some tips on “Curbing Your Cravings.” 
• LifeHack has a post on overcoming stress-eating through mental imagery. 
• Ben Popkin from Consumerist.com “Lost 14.6 Pounds Sitting in Front of a Computer.”  While I can’t really get behind the Shangri-La diet aspect of his success, mainly because I like to cook too much, the technophile part of me loves how he used all these different technologies to help him out.
• And Accidental Hedonist is running a poll about New Year's Resolutions and diet.  Weigh in with your opinion!  Get it?!? Ha ha...eh.

Healthy Eating 101 – What to Eat?

There are a gajillion lists and articles and studies published every nanosecond (for serious! That’s an actual statistic!) about the new great ingredient we should be eating.  Acai berries!  Goji berries! Dingle berries!  (Sorry I watched South Park tonight.)

I can’t keep track and some of that stuff can get pricey. So I decided to cross reference a few lists I’ve run across in recent months and come up with a master list that I can put on the fridge and then ignore completely and just eat string cheese and veggie Buffalo Wings.

No, I really do want to eat better (that should be the drinking game of this blog: take one shot every time I proclaim that), so maybe cutting through the chatter will help my addled brain focus on the right things better.

So here’s what I’ve come up with as the top recommended foods to incorporate into one’s diet…

Click to read more ...