Spicy Lentil Soup- Ash Wednesday 2020; 40 Days of Meatless Recipes Day 1

One thing Lent and the rest of the liturgical year have in common is that we pray and read the scriptures (or at least we should be doing so). One thing that sets Lenten prayer and scripture reading apart from that of the rest of the year is that my church will put anyone interested in small groups that meet weekly to do it, and the Lenten small groups are really good because you get to make friends and have fun while praying and learning together because it takes a lot of discipline to do it on your own and while it's wonderful and necessary to undertake independent efforts to grow in faith, God meant for us to have a community in the church to encourage and form one another in the Spirit. Lenten small groups help accomplish just that. One thing my church is doing differently this year with Lenten small groups is that a lot of them are meeting on Friday nights at the church and the Hospitality committee is hosting complimentary soup and salad suppers beforehand. I asked our pastoral associate if there would be vegan and gluten free soup options and she says as far as she knows, there won't be but she'd ask the Hospitality committee about bearing that in mind in subsequent weeks this Lent. This is why I recipe tested a modified version of the Lebanese spinach and lentil soup recipe from The Catholic Foodie. It's adapted based on what ingredients I already had on hand, but I would still be able to consume it if I were to follow this recipe to the letter. It's actually the day after Ash Wednesday as I'm writing and posting this, and this recipe would yield enough to have leftovers tomorrow when the laws of abstinence will be in effect (and probably the next day too) so I can take some with me to my Lenten small group meeting so I can participate fully with the group.

I explained the laws of abstinence in the post announcing the 40 Days of Meatless recipes series. All plant based recipes are fully compliant with the letter of the law but on social media, you will find a myriad of recipes that use plant based ingredients with the intention of mimicking a dish that is traditionally meat based. While those are technically within the letter of the law, I don't think they're very in keeping with the spirit of the law, and I will therefore be sharing such recipes sparingly in this series to keep both the Lent theme in this series and so it'll be useful to readers who don't observe the Catholic Lent and also to all throughout the year. But those won't be the recipes I'm using on Fridays in Lent. This lentil soup recipe is very in keeping with the spirit of the law, with no intention of replicating anything that would traditionally be meat based and therefore off-limits when the laws of abstinence are in effect, making it perfect for Fridays in Lent and for any soup suppers at church so the vegan and/or gluten free folks who share in the Body of Christ can be included. This recipe is also biblical because biblical scholars believe that in Genesis 25:29-34, lentil soup was the food that Esau gave his brother Jacob his birthright for.

This will not follow the typical recipe format because I didn't measure my ingredients. I rarely do, especially for something like this. I will instead share a bulleted ingredients list and a comparison between what I did versus what The Catholic Foodie did, with a link to that post (FYI- The Catholic Foodie is not sponsoring this post. I've simply read a few of Jeff's posts and like his content)

• Water
• Lentils
• Olive oil
• Cayenne pepper
• Chili powder
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Red onion
• Garlic
• Peppermint tea bag
• Zest and juice of two limes

The first thing to stress is that Jeff specifically says in the recipe notes to please use water instead of broth or stock because the spices impart more than enough flavor on their own and to use broth or stock as the liquid would make it too strong. I took his advice and this soup does have a lot of flavor using water as the liquid, and next time I make this recipe, I'll probably replace some of the water with plant based milk because that spice is strong, even though I love spice and basically live for it!

Jeff uses cumin in his version but because I don't have it (I thought I did so I didn't get it at the store) but I often use cumin and chili powder together, rarely using either without the other, so I thought the chili powder would work.

Jeff's recipe didn't call for a red onion but that's what we had in the house and it works and adds a beautiful pop of color. I find it kind of funny that it's called a RED onion when it's actually purple!

Tea bags are very strange ingredients to add to soups but the recipe called for fresh mint. I didn't have fresh mint but also saw no need for it because I knew I had peppermint tea bags on hand, so I steeped one of them in the pot while cooking. To safely do that, either use the ones without a string or cut off the string before you put it in. I once used tea bags in pots on the stove and because we have a gas stove, that made the string and tag at the end catch on fire. Luckily that's a small enough fire to put out just by blowing on it and nothing in the vicinity was damaged and nobody got hurt, but it's better to avoid having anything catch on fire in the first place so just use it without the string and fish the tea bag out when you're done. As for what this did to the flavor, the peppermint flavor didn't come through at all. Next time, I'll have to try either using more than one peppermint tea bag and/or using fresh mint like the recipe calls for.

This recipe also calls for the zest and juice of a lemon, which is actually for the condiment Jeff serves his version with. However, I added the zest and juice of two limes to the soup instead and I used two because limes are smaller than lemons.

Last but not least, Jeff adds spinach to his version, which can obviously be substituted with whatever you have on hand, and I thought I had frozen veggies in the freezer that I could add in and make my own version. I know, I need to do a better job of taking inventory before I go to the grocery store! I just had frozen bell peppers which I was planning to do something else with, so I didn't use them. There's already veggies in this soup with the onion (and some think lentils are veggies too) and you could also pair this soup with a veggie juice to get your veggies in.

And here is the promised link to Jeff's post: https://catholicfoodie.com/lebanese-spinach-and-lentil-soup

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me" Psalm 51:10