Spanish lentil soup

[Beth H]

I'm planning on making this for dinner tonight, and just noticed that it calls for "red" lentils -- I bought regular lentils at the store yesterday. Will this make a difference to taste, or just to appearance (which I don't care about as much since it's just for me)?

[Ohioan]

Beth, the red lentils cook much faster, and they usually cook apart into a puree, while the green or brown lentils keep their shape. Figure on extending the cooking time by at least half again as much as the recipe calls for, and you'll have a somewhat different consistency at the end. I sometimes think, too, that the taste is different -- the red lentils seem to taste more like split peas than like "real" lentils -- but maybe my taste buds are being fooled by the texture, which really is more like pea soup than like lentils! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/rolleyes.gif

By the way, I made the soup a a week or so ago and I thought the tomatoes kind of overpowered the lentils. I'd be interested in hearing your impression.

Phoebe

[Jeanne G]

Beth, I wouldn't think it would make a difference at all. Sorry I don't know for sure. I also saw this recipe and I printed it to make it. I'm curious to see if there really is a difference in red vs regular. I was planning on making it with the lentils in my cabinet(regular).

[LIsaP]

From my experience, Ohian is exactaly correct!

Red lentils are much softer and do fall apart when cooked as compared to regular lentils.
Since regular lentils take longer to cook than red lentils, you will probably need to add a bit more liquid to the soup as well.

I much prefer the taste of regular lentils, and was disappointed at the mushy consistancy of the red lentils when I made them.

[Jeanne G]

Thanks Phoebe! I would have made it with the regualar lentils and it would have been wrong!

[Beth H]

Well, I think I'll stick with the regular lentils, as I don't feel like running to the store after work, but will increase cooking time and liquid. I'm not sure the red lentils sound all that appealing anyhow. I'll report back on my success (or lack of it)tomorrow. Thanks for all the input.

[Beth H]

I did make this for supper tonight with the regular lentils. I extended the cooking time to 45 minutes and added an extra 1/2 cup of water to the recipe. I thought this was a good, but not great, recipe. It seemed to lack a certain "oomph," and I'm not sure what needs to be added to it to give it that. I didn't think the tomatoes necessarily overpowered, but I didn't put quite as much as the recipe required. So -- not sure this is a repeater, although it was an easy after-work meal and I have plenty of leftovers.

[BarbaraL]

I wondered about the difference between lentils. The March 2000 issue had an article on lentils. One recipe called for "French dark green or other lentils" and another called for "petite black lentils" -- neither of which I'd ever seen in a store (even in Fresh Fields). I bought some red lentils to try "Fragrant red lentils with rice, then never got around to making them (probably because the recipe has 19 ingredients). I made the Barbecue baked lentils this week (from the Sept issue, I think). I had a prepackaged bag of brown lentils, but they were about 1/4 cup short of the required 2 cups of dry lentils, so I used red lentils to make up the difference. The recipe was great!

[Natasha]

Sounds like there have been varied reactions to this soup. Here, we all really enjoyed it and I will make it again for sure.

The only thing I would add is that I personally found it a bit bland (though nobody else seemed to think so, unless they were just too polite to say so!), so next time I will try to spice it up a bit. I did add more red peppers, which I think added to the flavor, but next time will go further with the changes.

[This message has been edited by Natasha (edited 09-30-2000).]