Garam Masala "Red" Lentil Soup

So for my first post I am going to do something that I hope to do a lot through-out the hopefully long life of this blog: try something new. I have never made lentils and am new to soups, so why not try my hand at both?

First of all, let me tell you about the place I buy spices. A couple years ago, a place called The Spice House opened in my hometown. My dad told me it was good and he was quite right. It is a decent sized shop that is lined with large jars of spices. This store may be one reason that I got into cooking. Many recipes that I wanted to make required spices that I did not have. Buying them from the grocery store was far too expensive. Fennel seeds at the store were $4.99 for a tiny plastic shaker. At the spice house they were less than $1 for an ounce. I now have an entire drawer (I'd rather spend my money on ingredients than a spice rack) devoted to spice house spices. I now laugh in the face of those recipes that call for cumin seeds!

The website is rather handy. It makes finding spices easy, and often the spice page contains recipes that use this spice. I found this recipe from the entry on Garam Masala. While did buy the Garam Masala spice mix, I decided not to use it. I have all the constituent parts so might as well grind the spices myself. After all, with this recipe the spices are the star player.



Here is the recipe, which include some changes I made from the original recpie here.

Garam Masala "Red" Lentil Soup

• 2-1/2 cups dried chana dal (I decided to use the lentils I had on hand)
  
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (medium)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne chile pepper
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 6 cups water
• 2 cups chicken stock

Whole Spice Mixture (Grind these before adding)

• 1-1/2 teaspoons whole coriander seed
• 1 teaspoon Tellicherry peppercorns
  
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1-1/2 inches cinnamon stick (or 3/4 tsp of good quality ground Cassia cinnamon)
  
• 1 large black cardamom pod
  
• 4 cloves
  

In a bowl soak lentils in water to cover by 2 inches 1 hour and drain in a fine sieve. Be sure to check for pebbles or other debris.

In a 4-quart heavy saucepan cook onions in oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Stir in salt and spices and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Stir in lentils, water and stock and simmer until lentils fall apart, about an hour. (Old lentils may take longer to cook.) Let soup cool slightly.

Transfer soup to a blender in batches and puree (use caution when blending hot liquids), transferring to a bowl. In a pan heat soup over moderate heat, stirring, until hot and season with salt if necessary.

Clearly, this soup is not red. This is because I had bought chana dal a few days prior, and did not see the need to buy a different kind of lentils. The only change I had to make because of this was that I had to simmer the soup for much longer. I still think it maybe could have used another 20 minutes or so, as I kept coming across some gritty bits of what was supposed to be a creamy soup. I added a dollop of Greek-style yogurt, which while interesting, it distracted from the spices. I also used chicken stock instead of broth, since I had made homemade stock a few days prior.

The spice combination was quite good. The complexity of these spices only became even more apparent the next day. Overall, the soup was a success, and should push me into trying new soups and lentil dishes.