The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

A Mess of Pottage (Lentil Soup)

I used to make this a LOT years ago.  I probably started making it when I was a vegetarian - the book it comes from is all vegetarian - and after making it once, apparently I started making it in larger and larger batches, because right next to the list of ingredients/measurements - there are columns with my increased amounts - for double, triple, and quadruple the recipe. 

It's really good, and even better, it's incredibly easy.

The recipe comes from an old (okay, 1975 - but the book is falling apart, so it seems older) small press cookbook entitled "Cooking with Conscience,"  by Alice Benjamin and Harriet Corrigan.  It was published by Vineyard Books in CT, and at the time this was published, it cost $2.00.  On the cover, it reads "A book for people concerned about world hunger."

There are 52 recipes in this slim volume.  The one I'm featuring is number Twenty-Two.  To be honest, I don't know if I ever bothered trying anything else besides this wonderful lentil dish. 

Anyway, here's what the authors wrote about this dish:

"We couldn't resist having one dish called "A Mess of Pottage."  According to some Biblical translations, Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for "a mess of pottage."  Other translations say "bread and lentiles" and still others say "bread and lentil soup."  In any case, it was lentils and probably cooked with onions, butter, and a few herbs.  Who knows? -- this might even be somewhere close to the original.  (Except those were red lentils, and brown ones are easier for us to find.  And he certainly didn't add powdered milk.)  Serve with any whole grain bread to help complete the protein and a plate of raw vegetables such as carrot sticks and celerey.  Serves 3 or 4."

I served this for dinner with a salad of mixed greens, sliced fennel, fresh basil, and diced roasted chicken (left from the previous night's dinner), and a warm baguette, some olive oil, and a couple of cheeses.  Alex, predictably, didn't like it on sight.  Julia tried it, liked it, but didn't eat much.  My husband liked it eNORmously.  And I took my first spoonful and wondered why it's taken me so long to make this again. 

Ready?

Here's all you need:

1 cup lentils

3 large onions, chopped (I sliced mine)

(Oops!  Those darned onions - they made my eyes water and I couldn't see clearly.  I'll try again...)

(That's better!)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 stick butter or margarine

1 tsp cumin powder

3 T dried parsley

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tsp salt

3/4 cup powdered milk (I used liquid milk from the fridge.  I didn't have any powdered.)

And here's all you need to do:

Put lentils in large pot with a quart of water. 

Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer.  Meanwhile, cook onions and garlic in butter until golden

and add them and all other ingredients,

except the milk, to the soup. 

Cook until lentils are tender and stir in powdered milk.

Isn't that simple?  And lentils cook pretty quickly, so really, in the time it takes for the lentils to finish cooking, you can throw together a salad.  And if you start warming some bread when you start cooking the lentils, it'll be nice and crusty (and perfect for dunking) by the time everything is ready.  For very little cost or effort, you get a hearty, delicious, healthy meal.  Definitely worth trying.

Leek and Potato Soup

I love leeks.  I love everyone in the onion family, but I have a special affection for leeks.  I tried to describe why, but it sounded like really bad middle school creative writing, so I deleted it.   So we'll just skip that and move on to the cooking part.

I bought a couple bunches of leeks at the store earlier in the week, and potatoes, so that at some point this week I could throw together the soup.  It's one of the simplest things to make, and it's warm and comforting on a cold wintery evening.

The recipe I followed is from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I., by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.  It's the first entry in Chapter One - Soup.

Potage Parmentier (Leek or Onion and Potato Soup)

"Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make.  It is also versatile as a soup base; add water cress and you have a water-cress souop, or stir in cream and chill it for a vichyssoise.  To change the formula a bit, add carrots, string beans, cauliflower, broccoli, or anything else you think would go with it, and vary the proportions as you wish."

~~~~~

Here's what you need:

3-4 cups or 1 lb potatoes,

peeled,

and sliced.

 

3 cups or 1 lb leeks,

 

thinly sliced, including the tender green

* A few things to keep in mind about leeks - first of all, you want to trim the darkest green parts away - easiest way is to cut them on an angle while you rotate the leek on your cutting board.  You can see that inside the darker parts the green is lighter and kind of yellowish - this part is okay to use.  The darkest part tends to be drier, kind of like the skin you peel off of an onion, only not AS dry. 

Also, leeks tend to have dirt or sand in between their layers, and the best way to get rid of that is to slice the leek cross-wise

and soak it all in a deep bowl of cold water.

Swish the leeks around in the water to help loosen the dirt.  The leek will float, and the dirt and sand will sink to the bottom.

And you'll also need

2 quarts of water

1 T salt

And that's IT.  How simple can you get?

Place everything in a 3-4 quart sauce pot

and bring to a boil. 

Drop the heat down, partially cover the pot and simmer for 40-50 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Mash the vegetables with a fork or run them through a food mill - or use a food processor an immersion blender to puree everything.

Taste it, and add more salt if you think it needs it, and add pepper to taste.  Ta da!  You're done!

Now, if I had thought ahead, I would have picked up a baguette to serve with the soup.  But I didn't think that far ahead, and I didn't have time to make bread, so I found a recipe for a Quick Onion Flat Bread in a little cookbook called "Fast Breads!" by Howard Early and Glenda Morris.  It was published in 1986 and I think it's now out of print.  I've posted that recipe after this one, in case you don't remember to get a baguette while you're buying the leeks.

Oh - and below - I swirled in some half & half to make it look pretty.  The book calls for whipping cream or sweet butter stirred in before serving, and a sprinkling of parsley on top, but I didn't sprinkle parsley.  Sorry.