Carrot Lentil Soup

1.5 T EVOO
1 bunch carrots (or more), cut into pieces
2 yellow onions, sliced
1 rib celery, coarse dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 t ea toasted and ground cumin and coriander
1 t ea smoked paprika, ground ginger and salt
1/2 t black pepper, finely ground
1/4 t ea turmeric, cloves and cinnamon
Pinch cayenne
4-6 cups Chix or vegetable broth
Sherry vinegar or lemon juice
Creme fraiche (optional)

1/2 cup French, black or green lentils
1/2 onion, big dice

Heat EVOO in a heavy soup pot or dutch oven, add carrots, onions and celery, medium heat. Stir to combine. Cover and sweat vegetables ~5 minutes, until just softened. Add spices and garlic, stir to combine. Add 1-2 T water, stir to form a paste with the spices, saute until liquid reduces. Add 4-6 cups of broth, depending on amount of vegetables, and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, place lid askew, and simmer till vegetables are soft.

Meanwhile cook 1/2 cup of rinsed black or green lentils with the remaining 1/2 onion till just firm.

Puree the carrot mixture, add the lentils and season to taste with salt and sherry vinegar. Serve drizzled with creme fraiche if desired.

This is also good with browned, crumbled merguez, but then what isn't?

Another riff on Turkey Burgers

After looking up my poke recipe the other day, and then enjoying some defrosted turkey chile tonight that I have no idea how I made, I was reminded of the usefulness of this blog, if only for my own purposes. I seem to have more time to type in  a recipe these days than to jot it down in my old notebook, and my mind is a sieve, I forget favorites from week to week and then wonder what foolproof thing I can whip together for dinner.

Last night featured turkey burgers, or really, ground turkey seasoned and grilled, with a South Asian/Middle Eastern/North African fusion thing happening. I made my usual mixture with 1/4 cup matzoh meal, 2 minced green onions (whites and pale green stems), and 1 t salt, and added 2 teaspoons of Penzey's balti mix (intended to be simmered into a sauce, but the combination of spices worked for my purposes) and 1/2 t of Penzey's Trinidad Lemon Garlic spice mix. Forming the patties into thick cigars like a sikh kebab would have been better than the round burgers I made.

The turkeys were great with some garlicky hummus R and MZ had made earlier that day. We had a package of Sam's merguez sausages around, so we threw these on the grill, too, and I made a yogurt sauce with some minced green onion and a teaspoon of the yogurt masala I bought in Jodhpur, in imitation of a presentation we'd enjoyed at Aziza several months ago.  

And with two lovely bunches of carrots from successive CSA deliveries, Moroccan carrot salad was in order. I used the recipe from the first Greens cookbook, adding 1/2 cumin and the finely sliced green portions from the green onions I used for the turkey mixture instead of the called-for orange flower water. I love carrots with cumin, and the green onion slivers against the peels of carrot made for a pretty dish.

All of this would have been perfect with whole wheat pita or chapati, but we had grilled corn on the cob, and it was good.

Riff references: Moroccan Carrot Salad, Spicy Turkish Chickpea Spread