Wow this tasting note is from a long while back – all the way back before I moved out even!
Remember when I said I’d gone to the farmer’s market? Well I picked up Beluga Lentils and the reason I did that was because I’ve been sitting on a really interesting tea infused lentil soup recipe for a while now. It needs Beluga Lentils and I’ve had a hell of a time finding those. Well, low and behold there they were!
So, the recipe calls for basically making a broth out of Lapsang Souchong – it said to use two tablespoons of Lapsang but I really like the smokyness of Lapsang so I used three instead. After you’ve brewed up your strong, concentrated Lapsang broth you add in two cups of the black lentils and a can of diced tomatoes – one with all the juice and crap in it. Adding diced red onions was also an option but I didn’t have any on hand so I didn’t do that. Then you cook that on the stove top until the lentils are soft and have absorbed the majority of the water/stock so you have a thick stew like consistency. It took around 40 minutes, for me. Add salt and pepper to your tastes as well as a handful of finely chopped cilantro or parsley. I used parsley ’cause cilantro is kind of meh…
Obviously the recipe is a lot more exact but I don’t feel like typing it all out.
Anyway, this was really good! The smokyness of the Lapsang came through REALLY well and I could definitely tell that this was tea infused. As well, the Beluga lentils are quite earthy and that definitely complimented the smoke notes. The tomato? Well it was tomato – it worked well with everything else going on. Honestly, I didn’t taste the parsley a whole lot; in the future I think I would definitely double up on the amount I used to see if that changed anything.
Also, this recipe makes A LOT of Soup/Stew – enough for three REALLY big hearty bowls worth. It kept me fed for quite a while – and that was good because lentils are definitely a vegetarians best friend.
And finally, a picture for you all: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209875954589462&set=a.1008778773681.2000980.1051291635&type=3&theater
