I made another wonderful soup tonight. (I don't know why, in the middle of freaking June, I'm suddenly all into making soup. Probably because soups tend to be easy dishes, and very forgiving of substitutions, inexact measurements, etc. And tasty.)

Anyway, the soup I made tonight came from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which is currently making a strong bid for becoming my new favorite cookbook.

The soup goes a little something like this:

1. Take 1 cup lentils, washed and picked over. Throw them in a pot with 1 diced carrot, 1 diced celery stalk, and 6 cups of water or stock. (I used 4 cups canned low-sodium chicken stock, and 2 cups water.) Add a dash of thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer. Stir occasionally.


2. While lentils are simmering, dice an onion. Heat a little olive oil in a skillet, and cook the onion until it starts to soften. Toss in one minced clove of garlic, and cook for about a minute.


3. Open a 16 oz. can of diced tomatoes. Drain the liquid into the lentil pot, then toss the tomatoes into the skillet with the onions. Add 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro, 1 tbsp. minced fresh ginger, 1/2 tsp. cumin, and 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper to the skillet. Stir everything together, then turn the heat down to low.


4. When the lentils are tender (about 30 minutes simmering time), add the onion/tomato mixture from the skillet to the soup pot. Stir everything up, add a little extra water or stock if the mixture is too thick, and adjust the seasonings. Serve with pita bread and salad.

Really good stuff. The ginger and cilantro give the soup a really nice bright fresh flavor. I love cooking with fresh ginger - I need to find more recipes that use it.