Soup for a rainy night

One of the soups I planned to make this week is done. Made, enjoyed for two dinners, pots cleaned, chops licked. It was good. And timed nicely with our first rainstorm of the year. Finally. Melanie reminded me of it last week and I spent the days until it came to bubbly green fruition on my stove pining for it's yumminess.

See, I have this thing with coconut right now. By right now I mean for the last 3 months. It's my pregnancy craving numero uno. Mostly revealed in the amount of thai coconut soup I can consume in one week. It can be a little surprising. Second on demand is Indian spiced things, preferably the samosas from India Sweets & Spices on Venice in Culver City. Little pockets of fried heaven, I tell you.

And then this soup appeared. Indian spiced french lentil soup with coconut milk dumped in at the end... Where do I sign?



It's Molly's recipe, though I did make a few additions of my own.

1. I added cumin. I'm sorry but no properly spiced lentil dish should go with cumin.

2. I added fresh chili peppers from my garden. Only two teensy ones which had the seeds and membranes scraped out. Warning: if you don't know how hot a particular pepper is, (no matter how tiny), do not throw a second in for good measure.

3. I added a bunch of chopped beet greens at the end.

And I garnished with a blob of greek yogurt (an attempt to cut the above-mentioned chili spice), fresh cilantro, and a squeeze of kaffir lime.



Also it should be noted that Molly was smart enough to skip the photo of the actual soup. It looks a little like sludge or something Shrek would eat in his swamp. But it is wholly delicious. And for next time, I'm thinking I might try red lentils instead? Or the unsplit small brown Indian variety. Just a thought.