Today I'm thinking about food. I'm thinking about the food I make and eat. So many of my clients love hearing about what I'm cooking. It seems they don't cook like this for themselves. Cooking for me is an intuitive thing. I enjoy going to the fridge and pulling out random food to make something wonderful.
Sharing that skill is hard. I've been asked so many times to write it all down. To write down every meal I make and share it with the world. I don't feel that each meal I cook is all that stupendous. There are some that come in higher on the spectacular scale than others. This week I'd say the lentil soup I threw together was one of those yummy meals to be repeated.
Where did the inspiration come from? One of the clients at the gym gifted us with a bunch of organic kale. The kale sat in the fridge at work for the weekend. It got very limp and looked like it was beyond use. I brought it home on Tuesday in hopes of bringing it back to life or at least steaming out what little life it had left. I can't remember where I learned the trick but somewhere along the way I learned that if you cut the ends off wilted parsley and put it into a cup of water it will perk up a bit. If it works for parsley why not for kale? After a 3 hour soak in a glass of water the kale had sucked up 8oz of water, and I had usable hardy kale again!
Spicy Lentil Soup
1 bunch kale (not necessarily old), chopped into bite size pieces
2 cups carrots, peeled and sliced
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes with chipotle peppers
1 1/2 cups dry lentils
Put lentils in a large pot and rinse clean. Cover lentils with water and bring to a boil. Add all the veggies, including the water from the tomatoes. Simmer until the lentils are soft, adding water to keep it above the lentils for the entire cook time.
This was enough to feed 3 people for two meals. It could be made ahead and frozen in individual serving size portions for take to work lunches.
