Friday, March 15, 2013

Orange-Scented Lentil Soup

As expected- the aroma was lovely. The color- not so much :)
Per Tricia:
This week I enjoyed my older "taste tester" being home from college 
on Spring Break, so apologies for the distinct lack of comments left 
for my fellow Doristas. I did manage to make this soup (plus the prior 
week's Cheesy Creme Brulee in duplicate, then triplicate.....for the family
 to enjoy over homemade bread !!) and perhaps more importantly -
 found time to sign Nana and I up for the IFBC in Seattle. 
We are SO EXCITED to join our fellow bloggers and can not
 wait to meet you all in September.  Now back to the soup :) 
I would not have added the orange zest without Dorie's suggestion and
 the aroma was indeed lovely without the taste being overpowering. 
I make homemade soup fairly regularly and this was nice, but I
 probably will not add it to my short list of repeats. 
It was an achievement to locate the actual lentils du Puy- that was the
 toughest part of the assignment as this is a very easy recipe otherwise.
 My taste testers all enjoyed it. In lieu of the cob smoked bacon that is 
still waiting to be cooked, I added smoked kielbasa pieces on top with 
Greek Yogurt and that was a big hit. Nice, but not a repeat for us.

Per Nana:
This week's FFWD recipe is for another pureed soup, this time using lentils. 
 I used Green lentils from Wegmans but Tricia found some lentilles
 du Puy in a local health food store and shared them with me. 
 I am saving them and will prepare this recipe again, or even try Dorie's 
French Lentils (the basic recipe) on page 367 in "Around My French Table".
The flavors were very strange to me. Overall I think the addition of
 ginger turned me off. While the vegetables were cooking they looked 
so delicious that I could have eaten the lentils without pureeing them. 
 It is not the prettiest color for a soup but it was okay.
 I really prefer the lentils as a soup without pureeing them because I 
like to mix some Ditalini pasta to it with a drizzle of olive oil on top.

Happy French Friday~

21 comments:

  1. Soup, scmoop. (Both of your soups look lovely, but there are much more important things in this post!) I am so excited that you and Nana are going to IFBC. How funny is it that us East Coasters have to travel to the farthest reaches of the country to finally connect with each other.

    I am going out to get Runner Girl after work today. Her spring break is next week :-)

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  2. I am SO excited that I'll get to meet you both! Your soups look wonderful!!!

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  3. Both the soups look great :) Am sad that I won't be a IFBC - typically it's been in the summer holidays but since it's during school time and it takes so long to get there, I cannot swing the time :((((( We need to have a FFWD conference of our very own!

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  4. I agree that pureeing was not an interesting step, so I skipped it. They are both lovely soups, despite the color! I need to try to get to Seattle in september. Such a long trip.

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  5. It's interesting that everyone is mentioning the color of the soup and I never even noticed that the color was somewhat, well, ugly. If it hadn't been 80 degrees in Nevada when I made this soup, I might have added kielbasa also, Tricia. With your brulée-on-toast and your hefty soup, perhaps you managed to fill up your Spring Break vacationer. Fun to have him home, huh. And, Nana, I had to google Ditalini Pasta. Oh, the things I don't know. Looking forward to seeing you at the IFBC. Susan, Alice and I are busy putting together an info packet so we all have means of communicating with each other in Seattle.

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  6. Nope, it's not a very pretty soup, is it? I liked the texture (and the flavor) of it, but that color is just not attractive. Oh, well! At least it was easy, and it was pretty tasty for what it was. I think you ladies pulled it off pretty nicely!

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  7. I did not puree mostly thinking it would be a prettier soup? But I like the idea of a kielbasa garnish...and better yet...cook some in with the simmering soup! Always fun to see your compared cooking...so much fun to cook with family.

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  8. My husband hasn't tasted this one yet. I left a portion in the fridge for when he returns, and I guarantee you that he will add sausage to his. He will love the kielbasa idea.

    As for the color, I notice that the soup recipes in general are not the most photogenic of the group. Oh well, taste should probably matter more than looks.

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  9. I agree, good, but perhaps not a repeat. I liked that it was easy, though. Have fun in Seattle!

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  10. yes, I found the color off setting. Just proves how things look matter for your experience.

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  11. Tricia: I like the addition of smoked kielbasa plus the Greek yogurt to your lovely lentil soup - sounds like that tasted quite good and I almost feel guilty to mention that the Puy lentils can be easily found around here but the green lentils that I usaully use for my lentil soups also work in this recipe - I only puréed a small portion of this soup and did not regret that decision. How nice that both of you will be able to travel to Seattle in September - just make sure that the next time you will be travelling to EU to let me know...
    Nana: the green lentils also worked well in this soup and you are right to keep the Puy lentils for another one of Dorie´s dishes.
    Have a very lovely weekend!

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  12. I’m excited that you are both going to Seattle! We live so close and yet we will meet finally on the west coast!
    Both of these soups look wonderful! Enjoy your son and the rest of your family…time goes by too fast! Have a great weekend!

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  13. The soups look delicious:) Kielbasa is a great topping. I love the flavor it gives to soup.

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  14. I'm so looking forward to meeting you both! We're all going to have so much fun!

    I agree - the soup wasn't pretty, but it was good. Enjoy your weekend!

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  15. I agree about the color of the soup - not pretty! But I did like the taste so at least there's that. Don't know that I'll be making it again either. I like the idea of smoked kielbasa on the top though -yum!

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  16. I only like ginger in certain types of recipes. Maybe I'll cut back when I actually get to make this. The cheesy creme brulee on top of the homemade bread looks fantastic.

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  17. Lentil soup is never a pretty color. I wanted to like this one more than I actually did. I love lentil soup but I won't repeat this particular version. I've made the French Lentils recipe and it's good.

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  18. I think we all agree that this soup was not pretty, but it sure made up for it in taste!!

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  19. True, the color left much to be desired, but it turned out smelling wonderful!

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  20. Yup, I liked mine better not pureed, but both versions were tasty! I can't wait to meet you both in Seattle!!!

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  21. I agree, Nana, I wish I hadn't pureed this! Tricia, I like the idea of putting the cheesy creme brulee over toast. I wish I had thought of that.

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