Red Lentil Soup

It's such a wonderful time of year in Santa Barbara. Because of a whole lotta rain this year, the landscape is a lush green. The mountain slopes look gorgeous and the wild flowers are bountiful - especially the lupines. You see purple carpets of these delightful flowers all over the place. In our garden all the deciduous trees are blossoming, the heady scent of flowering jasmin surrounds the house, and the fragrant wisteria is flowering. We've been sipping wine in the jacuzzi late in the day and enjoying the calm early spring evenings. We've also done some beach walks to watch the sun set into the Pacific. At this time of the year I always feel a great appreciation for living where I do.

There've been quite a few food events recently to write about. Because of the terrific rain in our area, the chanterelle mushrooms have been plentiful. If only I knew where to go foraging for them! However, we can get then for under $10 a pound right now. I bought 5 pounds of these yellow beauties last week and have been enjoying heavenly meals everyday - chanterelles in fresh pasta, chanterelles in rissoto, pan roasted chanterelles added to a stew of pinto beans and potatoes with Indian spices, and just plain sauteed chanterelles on crusty bread. Wow! What a feast!

My book group met at my place last week. We had read Anthony Bourdain's A CHEF'S TOUR. It was a book about Bourdain's search for the perfect meal in the whole world. He traveled far and wide - to famous, well trammeled cities and to remote back of beyond hamlets. His adventurous nature and appreciation of the world's diverse people led him to trying out some pretty wild dishes. I won't go into that! The book was a reasonably good read. More of a cultural journey than a book about food. He concluded that there was no such thing as the perfect meal!!

For our meeting I served a red lentil soup (for which there was wild enthusiasm), a leek tart, and salad. For dessert we had spicy apple cake. Everyone wanted the recipe for the soup, so here it is:

You need: a cup of red lentils, a medium sized yam (or sweet potato), half a red onion, a tablespoon of fresh ginger and garlic (ground), a teaspoon each of cumin and coriander, half a teaspoon cayenne, half a teaspoon tumeric, and salt.
I used my pressure cooker to make this and it took less than half an hour!

Sautee onion in a saucepan, add cubed yams, and all the rest of the ingredients. Add 4 cups of water (or stock), and let this all cook together for about 20 minutes (8 minutes in a pressure cooker). When the yams are soft, use a hand blender to blend the soup mixture. Taste for seasoning. Add canola oil (or butter) into the soup. When serving top with some plain white yogurt and chopped cilantro (fresh coriander). This soup serves 5 - 6 people for a first course. It's a great one for the winter months.

I'm beginning to think about our spring garden. Hard to believe that it's already March.