There's a little Lebanese eatery on Hawthorne in Portland, OR. I discovered Riyadh's Lebanese Food accidentally during grad school when some friends and I, hungry for falafel, couldn't find the Middle Eastern place from the phone book. While we went for the falafel, it was the lentil soup that kept me coming back. I've been know to drive two hours round trip, with the flu, just to eat this comfort food. Since moving away, I've searched through recipes, making the ones I think may have that flavor and that texture. I still haven't found the perfect replication, but I have found some good ones along the way. This recipe started with one found on allrecipes.com and of course ended with my own adaptations. The lemon can be scaled back to taste and the salt can be left out altogether without taking away from the mix of flavors. The original recipe recommended blending the soup before the lemon and cilantro are added, but I like more texture to my soup.Lebanese Style Lentil Soup
6 cups Vegetable Broth
1 pound dried red lentils
1/8 cup brown rice
3 Tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 dash salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1. Bring vegetable broth, rice and lentils to boil in a large saucepan over high heat. Then reduce to medium-low, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes
2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in garlic and onion, and cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 3 minutes.
3. Stir onions into the lentils and season with cumin, salt and cayenne. Continue simmering until the lentils are tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Stir in cilantro and lemon juice before serving.
2 comments:
do you have to soak the lentils overnight first? i don't cook much with dried beans, etc and the few times i have i wasn't able to cook them through.
Lentils don't need to be soaked. I like lentils for that reason. Dried beans can be tricky, I've once had pintos in a crock pot for 2 days before throwing the crunchy things out. If soaking them overnight doesn't work, the legumes are probably old.
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