Lentil Soup and Dumplings

First, I have to apologise for the legume craziness on this blog at the moment. We eat a lot of them, but probably less than anybody would think if they read these two little entries.

Anyway, the Israeli boyfriend is pretty obsessed with lentils and its finally getting just slightly chilly enough in St Louis for soup... so there you have it folks! The only problem was that I had never made lentil soup before. So I resorted to my usual plan in these cases and looked it up on the internets, combined found recipes, and added my own stuff. And suddenly there was West Indian- fusion lentil soup in my kitchen. I must admit that the b/f insists that my soup is too thick to be soup and should be called lentil stew, but I insist this is part of the whole fusion thing, as we West Indians don't make anything that resembles what true soup is called in other countries. We like a thick stew looking dish, that we call soup. I should also mention that this mislabelling I was accused of didn't stop him having seconds or eating it again for lunch and dinner today.


Lentil Soup

1 1/2 cups dried lentils
1 onion (diced)
4-5 cloves garlic (diced)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp red pepper flakes
3- 4 oz salt pork (optional for veggies)
2 medium carrots (chopped)
1/2 small butternut squash (cubed)
Bouillon cube (whatever flavor you prefer)
5- 6 cups water
vegetable oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oil in large pot over medium flame. Add onions, cumin and red pepper flakes. Saute onion until soft. Add garlic and salt pork and saute until you can really smell garlic, but don't let it burn.

Throw in lentils, carrots, squash, bouillon and water, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to break up bouillon. Turn heat down low and continue to simmer for about an hour to ninety minutes. Check on it and add more water if necessary.


Dumplings

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup milk
3- 4 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth)

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in shortening and milk to form stiff dough.

Place chicken broth over medium flame and bring to rolling boil. Drop the dough by tablespoons into the broth. Allow to boil for 5 to 7 minutes.


When the dumplings are all done, you can either drop the finished products in the lentil soup (which is my preferred method, but it does thicken the soup up a bit), or you can put them in the bottoms of individual bowls and then spoon soup over them.