An Easy Lentil Soup - Baby food for the Soul

I may have created a monster.  I swore early on that I would not make Aiden eat food that I wouldn't eat myself.  I've stayed true to this promise....for the most part.  I did break out the jarred baby food a couple of times when traveling but mostly he's been raised on the homemade stuff and real-deal adult food that is baby-friendly because he is always more interested in what's on our plate than what's on his plate.  With in a month, Aiden had a discerning palate and didn't want anything but real food.  So the challenge was to made food that my 30 something husband and my 9 month old baby would both eat.  Soup, beautiful soup, pleases them both.  

This lentil soup is based on Mark Bittman's Classic Lentil Soup in "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian".  It might just be the perfect bowl of soup.  It takes 30 minutes to make.  It is  nutritious.  Blended, it is the perfect vehicle for sneaking chard, broccoli, zucchini into Baba's diet.  

1 cup brown lentils

1 bay leaf

2 big pinches of dried thyme (or several sprigs of fresh)

1 carrot, cut in 1/2 inch dice

1 celery stalk, cut in 1/2 inch dice

6 cups vegetable stock

salt/pepper to taste

2 Tbls olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 clove garlic, minced

a couple of handfulls of spinach, chard (de-stemmed), roughly chopped (Optional)

1.  Bring lentils, bay leaf, thyme, carrot, celery, stock, salt and pepper (to taste) to boil in a large pot over high heat.  Set heat to low and cook, stirring occassionally, for 30 min or until lentils are tender. 

2.  Meanwhile, prep onion and garlic.  Then saute onion in a skillet over medium heat until soft (5 min).  Add garlic and cook another minute.  

3.  Once the onions are cooked, add mixture to the cooking lentils which should be finishing up the last 10 minutes or so.  Toss in the greens.  Make sure they have wilted before turning off the heat.

4.  Let the soup cool.  Puree soup (using either an immersion blender or a regular blender).

My Indian Rice

Well actually this is "Simple Yellow Rice" from Yamuna Devi's The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking with just a little more spice. Lac loves this rice and asks for it all the time; I consider this is a major accomplishment. I've made it so many times that I've internalized the recipe and can wing it (aka no measuring and changing it up regularly - the other day it became Mexican rice). Mom and Helena have asked for the recipe and when they do, they say...how do you make your rice?

My Indian Rice

1 cup basmati rice
1 3/4 cup water
2 tbs ghee or oil

whole spice mixture
1 tsp cumin seeds
8 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick (about 3 inches) broken into 1 inch pieces
1/4 tsp ajwain seeds (whole oregano seed)

ground spice mixture
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp tumeric

1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro- optional

1. Rinse rice and soak in bowl of water while prepping other ingredients. Drain.
2. Heat Ghee or oil in a heavy 1.5 quart pot over med heat. When hot, add whole spice mixture and saute until spices give off aroma and cumin seeds start to lightly brown (about 1 min).
3. Add rice. Turn heat to low and cook stirring continuously until rice starts to look transparent in spots. You will see individual rice kernels really stand out and rice start to clump.
4. Add water and ground spice mixture. Stir once. Increase heat to high. Bring water to a boil.
5. Cover pot with lid. Set heat to low. Cook until rice is cooked and water absorbed. About 15 min.
6. Lift lid, add fresh herb and quickly cover. Let rice sit for 5 to 10 min. Fluff and serve.

Variations
-Saute 1/4 c minced onion until soft prior to adding whole spice mixture.
-Add 1 tsp orange zest with or instead of the cilantro (last step).
-Super Easy Mexican rice - Saute 1/4 minced onion and 2 cloves of garlic before adding rice. Remove whole spice mixture and tumeric. Use 1 c tomato juice and 3/4 cups water in place of water.