Cross Border Soup
Improvised By David VanThournout
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
Ingredients you will need:
- wehani (red aromatic rice)
- Brown Rice
- Lentils
- Broccoli
- Jalapeno's
- Carrots
- Cilantro
- Lime Juice
- Curry
- Turmeric
- Brewers Yeast
The ingredients for this soup and the idea's behind it are from all over the world. A couple things stand out to me however. There is a polarity between Mexico and India. Or you could say between south Asia and Latin America. Mexico is the origin of 75% of the worlds food plants commonly cultivated. South Asia is the home to all the spices we love to put in those dishes. There are few truly secret ingredients nowadays thanks to the internet and a planet full of foodies of which I am one. Cilantro is certainly one of them. Olive oil is another. Though that doesn't appear in this dish. Cumin, the seeds that come after the cilantro has grown up, are a core spice for both Indian and Mexican dishes. Depending upon how much you put in, you can either be dining in Latin America, or South Asia. The red rice, comes from Minnesota. So this is, as most really good dishes are, truly an international experience. Enjoy!
Sorry, I don't have any pictures for you but imagine this, first put on some wehani (red aromatic rice) mixed with brown rice (they take the longest to cook). Then after fifteen minutes put on another pot with lentils and get them going. While the lentils are cooking, cut up one or two jalapeno's or whatever capsicum containing things you might have nearby, and after about 15 minutes add them to the lentils. Now cut up your other veggies. First the carrots and the broccoli. Do the cilantro last since we don't add it till the soup is done and being served. Place your veggies in a steamer and start them roughly 15 minutes before the rice is done (which is about an hour total). A lot of why I do this is because I'm a musician and I improvise a lot, write new songs every time I play and there's not much difference between soup and songs, both are nourishing something. So...
I like to add some brewers yeast to the lentils, they're already really aromatic and tasty but they'll be even better with the brewers yeast (people that eat meat tend to appreciate the flavor I think). It is nevertheless optional.
Once the lentils have been on for about 20 minutes I add a very generous amount of hot curry powder and turmeric. Curry, generally believed to be a corruption of the Tamil word kari intercahangeably means sauce, cooked vegetable or meat, but it might be derived from the French cuire which means "to cook". Curry already has Turmeric in it but I like the extra health benefits from it and so I add more. Besides it tastes good, is an anti-inflammatory and an anti-cancer agent extraordinaire. It may even be good for my migraines.
Once the rice is soft enough to eat combine all the ingredients together except the cilantro and stir. You may wish to add some salt, I tend to go light on that, not for myself but in general for others that might require low sodium. let this work together for less than five minutes and then add your cilantro and serve quickly.
Options include pureeing the lentils prior to adding them into the mix, this soup is very close to the indian mulligatawny soup. Though I'm sure I'm having an Americanized version of it here in the Quad Cities.
It is important to note: don't add the lime juice till the very end, and certainly not to the lentils. Legumes of any kind will take forever to soften if you put anything acid in it before they're soft. Try it sometime, add tomatoes to your beans before they soften. you'll be there all day wondering what's wrong with these beans? If that happens, my advice is to puree them in a blender and then put them back in the pan and make refried beans.
