Curried Lentil Soup
http://rebeccmeister.livejournal.com/769564.html

I served a version of this soup to the Scrabble Society once. They declared that it made them stupid and caused them to lose that night's Scrabble game.

Some days, maybe you have some vegetables rolling around in the fridge and you have a head cold and you just don't feel like going to the store to pick up any fancy ingredients. Fancy ingredients are great when you're rolling in the dough, but sometimes times are tight and you've just got the basics, a couple of potatoes, some carrots, and some celery. Maybe, if you're lucky, you've opened the cupboard and found that you still have some dried red lentils kicking around. Well, if it's cold and dark out, and you've baked some bread not too long ago, it's starting to sound like a good night for some curried lentil soup.

The method's pretty simple - chop up some vegetables, like those potatoes, carrots, and celery, and put them in a soup pot with a cup of red lentils. If you feel like it, you can add in a bay leaf and maybe a teaspoon of turmeric, if you've got some. Add a couple cups of water, or vegetable stock, bring stuff to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for a while, maybe 20-30 minutes or so until the lentils are nice and soft.

Now, getting the curry flavor into the soup. Curry spices must be heated in oil to release their deliciousness. If you have an onion, dice it. Heat up a couple tablespoons of oil in a second pan (bonus points if you've got mustard oil), then add the onion and maybe some garlic and saute for a few minutes until things start to soften up and smell nice.

Now, curry. If you have some curry powder on hand, by all means, use it. Add in somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, and just cook it a minute or two. Like things hot, add some chili powder. Some dried red pepper might add nice flavor, too. If you're a curry-cooking pro and have a ridiculous stockpile of spices with obscure names, you can use those if you want - try a teaspoon of calonji (/kalonji/onion) seeds mixed in with the onions, then maybe some of your hand-blended curry powder where you've gotten the ratio of cumin to coriander just right. Then add that mixture to your vegetables, let everything sit for a few minutes at a really low simmer so the ingredients get to know each other. Then, if you've got your custom blend of garam masala, add a teaspoon of that and a nice squeeze of lime juice. Let that sit for a minute, ladle up a bowl, and eat it with a slice or two of bread.