Week 12 -- Lentil Soup #2 and Magic Sprinkles

Happy St. Joseph's Day!  I mentioned last week that I'm not a big fan of St. Patrick's Day, but that is not true for St. Joseph's Day!  This is one of my favorite feasts.  I have a lot of memories of family and church traditions from this.  Who doesn't love a holiday that includes a tradition of sharing cookies with your friends and neighbors?

Another great thing about St. Joseph's Day is that it's traditionally a meatless feast.  And what is our family's traditional meal?  Why, our favorite pulse, of course!  Welcome back, lentils!  

(Our other traditional food is carduni, burdock stems cooked in an egg batter.  We don't eat eggs now, but Mom and I both have our own ways of preparing this.  Mom uses garbanzo batter.  I use silken tofu and, usually, green beans, because I'm too lazy to prepare real carduni.)

This lentil soup is closer to our traditional St. Joseph's Day lentil recipe.  Grandma used to make it with a packet of onion soup powder.  Our family replaces that with savory herbs and molasses.  Mom adds liquid aminos (feel free to add some if you aren't strictly limiting salt -- it does add a lot in this dish, but you can still enjoy it without).

Our family tradition also dictates that you should add water without measuring it.  If the soup ends up thick, you serve it over pasta.  If it ends up thin, you add some pasta to it and eat it with a spoon.

One last St. Joseph's Day tradition is "St. Joseph's Sawdust," a condiment made by frying seasoned breadcrumbs.  To replace that, I make my "magic sprinkles."  These sprinkles are great on pasta any time of year.

So much promise in a bag of lentils...

There's the soup!  As you can see, it's in the middle for thickness, 

so I jarred up some as soup and ate the rest over pasta.

Here are the lentils served over pasta.  It's actually red lentil pasta.

Mom says this is as silly as eating a seitan sandwich. 
I agree, but it's my favorite pasta, so I don't mind being silly! 
There are the magic sprinkles on top and extra on the side.

Lentil Soup #2

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 carrots, diced
1 lb green or brown lentils, rinsed and sorted
6-8 cups of water
1 tsp each savory, sage, and thyme
black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp molasses

1. Saute the onion in a large soup pot in a little bit of water.  Add the garlic and carrots.

2.  Add the lentils with at least 6 cups water.  You can decide if you want to play lentil roulette and add water without measuring.  It's a fun surprise!  Add the seasonings, too.  Let everything simmer about 30 minutes until the lentils are tender.

Makes about 4 servings.

Magic Sprinkles

4 Brazil nuts
3 Tbsp flax seeds (ground or whole)
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 - 1 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp miso paste

1. Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor.  Process until finely ground and crumbly.

Everyone should eat 4 Brazil nuts each month to keep cholesterol levels healthy, but no more or you'll get too much selenium.  This recipe makes one month's worth of cheesy statin-substitute.  If you want more than this in a month, replace the Brazil nuts with more flax seeds or other nuts.