I just tried to make a puree of red lentil soup and it was perfectly awful! had absolutely no taste...well, I take that back, it tasted a bit like watered down cardboard that had been dragged through the dirt before being made into soup. I was chatting with my sister on the phone and trying to fix the soup.
Let me backtrack...I wanted to emulate the soup we had at the Turkish restaurant in NY, so I went to Hannaford's and bought about 2 lbs of organic red lentils from the bulk aisle. I soaked a few cups in water and they split apart fairly easily. So I sauteed some scallions and some celery in olive oil, added two cups of red lentils (soaked in four cups of water) and then sauteed for a while. I added to this mix a dash of organic minced garlic, some paprika, and some cayanne/ black pepper mix. I stirred it around and then added about a carton and a half of organic chicken stock....I know, GASP, I didn't make it myself, but cut me some slack, I've been away.
I let the whole simmer on the stove for about twenty minutes and when I came back the whole looked like faded mush! Shit! wasted all those ingredients on shitty soup again.
Well, I kept at it and pureed it in my blender. If was a real chef, I might force it through a sieve, but honestly, who has the time? So, with a fresh pot for the soup, I dipped in a spoon to taste....YUCK! damn, damn, damn...tasteless.
I quickly cut up some fresh rosemary, added more paprika for the color, ground in some pepper and added sea salt, and hot madras curry powder. Still, it wasn't up to snuff, so I thought some more and realized that I had forgotten the fresh lemon juice! So I squeezed out the juice of one lemon and added a bit more curry powder (about 1/2 a cap full at this point total) and heated it all up.
All of a sudden....it was AMAZING! I love this soup. It turned out to have tastes on so many levels and the watery finish turned into this rich stock taste. Mmmmm....I had a cupful for dinner and will serve the rest tomorrow night for dinner when we have a friend coming over for a farewell meal. mmm mmm good!