Lebanese Style Lentil Soup

This recipe contains many of my favorites, or in internet talk, favs. My favorite thing to cook is soups. My favorite regional cuisine: Lebanese; my favorite legume: lentils; my favorite green leafy spinach type vegetable: spinach!

I decided to make this soup a few months after eating the lentil soup at Zaytoon’s Restaurant in Brooklyn. Their soup is creamy, sort of like split pea. Delicious. I attempted to re-create it, but half-way through, went in another direction. Thanks to Nazy, we now have the real recipe from Zaytoon’s. (She asked for it. Such a simple and effective way to gain information. Who would have thought?) Here’s the long version (Skip down to the summary if you want …)

Ingredients:

-1 lb red lentils

-1 large yellow onion, chopped

-4 cloves garlic, minced

-3 carrots, chopped

-2 celery stalks, chopped

-6 cups water

-3 vegetable bouillon cubes (chicken works, too)

-1 bay leaf

-1 package frozen chopped/diced spinach (not the whole leaves! Trust me!)

-1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

-1 tsp cinnamon

-Lemon wedges

-Sumac

I started with 1 pound of red lentils. They sort of look split like a split pea. Maybe they are? I rinsed them many times and cleaned out the junk. There’s plenty of junk. Including rocks, but that’s typical of any bagged bean. Homer referred to them as “prizes” in an episode from the early years of The Simpsons. (He stumbled upon a tipped over truck of sugar, remember? Texas cheese, sweetener!)

Setting the lentils aside, I heated up some olive oil in my soup pot. I like soup pots. I have 4 at the moment. I diced a big yellow onion and threw it in. 4 cloves of garlic minced and in the pot. Salt and pepper. I chopped a couple 2, 3 carrots and celery guys and tossed them in, too. Things started to smell nice. I wish I was one of my very lucky roommates coming in the front door.

After the onion softened, I added the lentils, stirred, and allowed them to hang out for a few minutes. I added 6 cups of the freshest Brooklyn tap water I could find. I un-wrapped 3 veggie bouillon cubes and dropped them in. Then I put a lid on it and … I waited. Sometimes I stirred, but mostly I waited. The red lentils start to break down after 30 minutes or so, so I put on NPR and cracked open a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. It was cold and I was hot. I started to thaw the frozen pack of spinach and chop the cilantro.

When the lentils started to get creamy, I added the spinach. It cooked for 30 more minutes, often stirring. I mean, stirring often. About 10 minutes before I ate/served the soup, I added the chopped cilantro and cinnamon. I squeezed on some lemon juice and sprinkled on Sumac. We ate with toasted bread, yogurt, and olives. Plastic skull shot glasses preferred.

Here are the quick and boring directions if you don’t care about my experience:

1. Cook onion, garlic, carrots, and celery in thing.
2. Add red things
3. Add H2O, cubes
4. Cook or something, I don’t care. 30 minutes
5. Add spinach, 20 minutes
6. Add cilantro, cinnamon
7. Squeeze lemon juice.
8. Don’t blame me if it isn’t good. You should have read the long version

-Bob