Monday, June 23, 2008

A window in...

I made lentil soup for dinner tonight--it's still cool enough for it to make sense--and wrote a letter to a friend while it bubbled on the stove. I got up occasionally to stir the pot and add a little more black pepper, a little more thyme.

On one of these trips to the stove, I looked out the window near the sink and spotted three girls tiptoeing across the roof of their back porch. They were covered, from head scarves to long dresses touching their toes, in beautiful flowing fabric that played with the wind quite well. They soon saw me through the window and started waving excitedly. It was very sweet, the whole scene.

And now, my lentil soup recipe (it's all improvised):

1 tbsp butter
2 medium red onions
2 medium sized potatoes
one bag dry lentils
4-6 cups of water (you pick thickness)
3 celery stalks
1 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup brown sugar
about 1 tbsp hot sauce (or a couple dashes of cayenne)
black pepper and salt to taste
2 tbsp thyme
dash cinnamon

Cook onions and potatoes in butter in soup pot until onions are soft. Add water, lentils, black pepper, and salt and boil for 30 minutes or until lentils are softened up. Add carrots, celery, brown sugar, hot sauce, and rest of spices. Cook until desired consistency and adjust spices accordingly. Enjoy over brown rice or with a piece of whole wheat bread.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh. I am SO going to try that soup. It sounds amazing.

whitney said...

it's good, the brown sugar and hot sauce make me feel a little 70s cookbook but it's sooooo good.