Soups & Stews

There's a brilliant sun shining outside my window. And as long as I stay indoors, I can pretend the temperature matches the view. It's -16C, but apparently feels like -25.

And what could be more perfect to warm up my Honey when he gets home than lentil soup...especially when I have 5 varieties of lentils in various jars and packets in my kitchen, which means I don't have to go out foraging for food.
If you check through my Soups & Stews, you'll see that there are umpteen varieties to choose from. Many of them have Middle Eastern or Indian seasonings and I love them all. Don't even get me started on the ones I've found in my gazillion cookbooks and magazines.

This time I wanted something more mellow, something with just some thyme perhaps. I knew I had seen such a recipe...but where? Not here on my blog, not in the cookbooks, lining my shelves and piled on the floor. And then, looking for something else entirely, I found it. It's in my very own cookbook Every Kitchen Tells Its Stories .
It all makes sense actually, since the reason it's special to me is that it's the one my mother served us in the dead of Montreal winters. It's the soup that felt most like a warm blanket to get rid of the chill.

My Own Mellow Lentil Soup

(or at least my mother's)

I'm always interested in the flavors of childhood. My ancestry is Russian/Polish (depending on the day, my father used to say) and there was always lots of onions, thyme, carrots and celery to flavor dishes, but very little spice other than pepper. So when I need real comfort, that's what I crave. What about you?