Job Discussion Forums

[MO39]

My favorite Mexican soup is lentil soup, and I've decided to cook up a big pot of it this weekend. Trouble is that I don't have a good recipe. Can anyone help me out?

[Phil_K]

Not at the moment, but don't forget one thing,

big chunks of pl�tano macho - skin and all (don't eat the skin! )

[MikeySaid]

To keep it simple, get out the tanteometro, you'll need it.

The way I've had it here and subsequently modified it (and I quite like it this way)...

half a kilo of lentils,

3-5 strips of bacon (how much fat do you want?)
one medium white onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of toasted cumin, ground (use the tanteometro here)
a few grinds of black pepper
knorr caldo de pollo (tanteometro, again)
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

start by cutting the bacon into small pieces and begin cooking it in your soup pot, add onion and let it sweat (don't want color to change) add water, lentils, chicken broth powder and cumin (i suggest holding back on the cumin to check for taste, some people don't love it like i do)

add the cilantro a minute or so before serving

if you like spice, 1 tsp of chile de arbol quebrado will give it some heat.

that's more or less what we do, but we don't have our own cooking show... so you might check with alton brown:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/lentil-soup-recipe/index.html

[MO39]

Mikey, thanks for the uncomplicated recipe, my favorite kind! I checked out Alton Brown's slightly more complicated version and noticed that he mentions pureeing the final results in a blender. Do you do that?

[MikeySaid]

no no no, this is mexico, eat beans whole! even if they're disc shaped!

you could, though ive never done that.

[thelmadatter]

Love lentil soup in any form... not Mexican but there is a little Arab restaurant on a little street called Santa Anita off Calzada de Tlalpan off the Viaducto Metro. That guy's lentil soup is heaven. All his food is good but you better like garlic because he sure does!

[MELEE]

My favorite Mexican lentil soup is the kind with nopales floating in it. I don't have a recipe with me at the moment, but could get it to you later.

BTW, I usually use my submersion blender to sort of pure the lentils while leaving about 50% of them whole.

[Jetgirly]

What kind of lentils do you use? Also, are they canned or dry? I am somewhat of a soup fanatic (in that I've eaten it almost every day for the past ten years).

[MO39]

It looks like there are lots of lentil soup lovers on the Mexico Forum. Maybe we should have "We [heart] lentil soup" T-shirts made .

[lozwich]

[MO39]

[Phil_K]

Go to Metro Canal del Norte and outside, walking north ofn Congreso de la Union, there are many stores that do customized T-Shirts. Not a beautiful area, but I'm sure, cheap - There is also a permenant underwear tiaguis in the cross of Congreso and Canal if you're interested!!

[Writer]

Does anyone know where I can find split yellow peas in Oaxaca City? I've found the green and brown lentils, but I'd love to find the yellow peas.