What possessed me to try out this recipe (Spinach & Lentil Soup) I will never know. It was touted as a great soup to make the most of winter vegetables that may be hanging around in the garden. As in vegetables that you had grown yourself. Now, my garden is covered with a beautiful white frost this morning with the odd spider’s web glistening here and there but vegetables? Unless you count grass then no, I do not have any vegetables in my garden.
The recipe called for spinach, green lentils, lemon juice, onion, cumin, garlic and a potato which are all readily available from my local supermarket. After chopping, boiling, simmering and blending what emerged could only be described as sludge. Having spent summers on my Grandfather’s farm I have never seen anything that came so close to resembling slurry and certainly not served up in a bowl on the table. If you closed your eyes the smell and taste was tolerable but presentation is everything when it comes to food and this soup had nothing going for it in the looks department.
It looked so bad that even though I arranged it with a couple of lemons and a zester on a wooden board there was nothing I could do to redeem it in a photograph. I tried mixing in a spoonful of creme fraiche to lighten the colour but without success. I was even tempted to photoshop it and looking at the picture of the soup in the magazine I am baffled as to how theirs came out looking such a vibrant, limey green. What I have produced resembles an algae like wheatgrass sludge. I forced myself to eat half a bowl full and then chucked the rest down the sink. I was going to keep it to show the kids but The Gravy Man said not to as they might use it against me some day!!!
You do NOT need
250g spinach
250g green lentils
1 onion
1 potato
1.5 litres vegetable stock
4 garlic cloves
5 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tsp cumin
Please do NOT
Boil the lentils with the vegetable stock, then add the cubed potato, finely chopped onion and roughly chopped spinach and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the crushed garlic, cumin and half the lemon juice and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the remaining lemon juice, blend and serve with crusty bread.
Do Remember
If a recipe calls for that much garlic and lemon juice they are the only things you are going to taste and perhaps there is a reason for that. Beware!
If you would like an ‘OMG That Looks Disgusting’ moment, then subscribe and leave a comment and I will email you a picture but there is no way that I am putting it up on the site!
Til next time, Sheila