sprinklefingers

phew! we’re home from bend. thank goodness. i don’t think my back could take another night in that bed. and i’m so happy to be back in my own kitchen. sure, my mother-in-law’s kitchen is wall to wall granite with a six-burner cooktop and a center island the size of new hampshire complete with prep sink, but i have to say i prefer my rinky-dink kitchen where everything is in the exact drawer it should be in - and where i can easily locate a sheet pan (i literally looked for a sheet pan in her kitchen for 20 minutes on saturday. for real.)

anyways, as soon as the last bag was out of the car today, i started a pot of soup. seeing as how we’ve been gone for days, we have no real food in the house so this soup was an experiment…my attempt at making something we could eat without having to face the grocery store until tomorrow.

at first i was a bit skeptical - no carrots. no celery. no unsalted butter. but i did have a few fingerling potatoes. salted butter. some lentils. an onion. garlic. and a couple of bags of frozen, cubed butternut squash. so, i made soup. and here’s how you can do it:

unpack the car and make lentil soup, soup
serves 6-8, depending upon serving size

you need:

• 2 T salted butter
• 6 fingerling potatoes, 1/4” dice
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 20oz (or so) butternut squash, cubed
• 1 lb green lentils, washed and picked over
• 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 1/4 t cumin
• a few heavy dashes freshly grated nutmeg

to make the soup:

1. in a large soup pot, heat the butter over medium heat.
2. add the potatoes, onion, garlic and squash - cook for 10-15 minutes or just until the onions are soft and the mixture is starting to brown on the bottom of the pot.
3. add the lentils, stock, salt, pepper, cumin and nutmeg and raise the heat to medium-high until the mixture boils.
4. reduce heat and let simmer for 50 - 60 minutes or until the lentils are soft and the soup has thickened.
5. adjust seasonings and serve.

home! hooray!