Sunday Dinner: Lentil Soup

The weather, having delayed its autumn and winter days until January, has denied us our days of bowls of hot, tasty, nourishing soup — but now our wintry winds are prevailing, and soup it shall be.

There are many ways to make soup — with the variations in meat, if any; the vegetables, if any; plus the seasonings. Soup can be so light that it is almost broth, which one could drink — or so thick that a fork could be used. The best soups are between those.

Soups with a meat stock base require simmering, often for two or three hours. If you work away from home, this simmering can be done the day before serving and the other ingredients added nearer serving time.

Today’s soup is from Preston Creech, formerly of Mountain Creek Baptist Church in Troy (near Edgefield). He calls it Lentil Soup and says it is the soup for which Esau sold his birthright. That’s a long time for a recipe to be handed down in a family.

Lentils are described as “any of several leguminous plants with flattened seeds of leafy stalk used as fodder, their seed used for food.”

Although it has a Troy address, Mountain Creek Church is near McCormick, not far from the Georgia line in the Kirksey community. Organized in 1798, Mountain Creek has around 50 members and is pastored by Rev. Robert Hoffman. It is part of the Edgefield Baptist Association.

A retired chaplain, Preston and his wife, Nancy, moved to Florida in August to live in the Sunshine State at an Air Force base at Cocoa Beach (near Cape Canaveral). They had lived in Edgefield since 1993 on a hundred-acre farm with pecan trees. After a while, the pecan trees became overwhelming, so he sold his house and he and his wife moved to Florida without the pecan trees.

As with most legumes, these lentils are hardy, nourishing and good-tasting, and we thank Preston for sharing the recipe. One day soon, make your tummy glad by making Preston’s soup before you go to church, then reheat and serve it for … Sunday Dinner.

Lentil Soup
(the soup for which Esau sold his birthright)

2 quarts beef broth or consommé
2 cups red or brown lentils (rinsed, soaked overnight, drained)
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 onions (1 stuck with cloves)
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons chicken fat

Pour broth or consommé into a soup pot and add the soaked lentils, carrot, onion stuck with cloves, celery and bay leaf.

Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Slice remaining onion. Melt fat in skillet and sauté onion over medium heat until it just begins to color. Transfer it to the soup.

Continue to simmer soup, stirring occasionally, for 90 minutes. Dip a cup into the soup and remove some of the soup and lentils. Puree the cup of soup in a blender or food processor, and return it to the soup in the pot to thicken the liquid. (More lentils can be pureed if a thicker consistency is preferred.)

 

Have a recipe? sundaydinner@baptistcourier.com