Cookbook Challenge # 4 - New Covent Garden Soup Co. Book of Soups
My husband Dylan and I first met in England in 1997. We were both volunteers with a program that placed young adults in their late teens through mid 20s for a year of volunteering with various churches and nonprofits, and we met as a pair of jet-lagged Americans at the international volunteers’ welcome conference. During our year there one of us—I’m pretty sure it was Dylan—either bought or was given New Covent Garden Soup Co.’s Book of Soups (1996). New Covent Garden made, and per Google apparently still makes, the sort of higher-end prepared soups that are sold in cartons rather than cans in grocery stores. And this cookbook is just what is says on the tin/carton: a collection of soup recipes.
Because of this, I just made one recipe this week, since I couldn’t really do a main and a side or a main and dessert. (There are a couple of dessert soups, but most of them relied on currently out-of-season fruit like berries and melons.) I selected Lentil and Lemon Soup, because it was straightforward, quick, didn’t require much chopping, and made good use of our extensive stock of dried beans and canned tomatoes. It turned out simple and tasty, when paired with garlic bread a nourishing Sunday evening dinner on a cold night in a troubled world.
Lentil and Lemon Soup
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed (I used a teaspoon of jarred minced garlic—what a chef I follow on TikTok calls “jarlic”)
150g/5 oz red lentils, rinsed
570 ml/1 pint vegetable sotck
1 400g/14 oz tin chopped tomatoes (I used a 14.5 oz can diced)
2 tsp tomato puree (I wasn’t sure whether this was closer to tomato sauce or paste, but I went with paste because I figured it was a stronger flavor)
2 T finely chopped fresh thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste (ordinarily I’m a fresh lemon juice snob, but we have a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge from when Dylan was making quince jam this year, and I’m trying to be frugal so I used several generous splashes)
Heat the oil and cook the onion and garlic gently for 10 minutes without coloring. (Which I assumed meant at a low enough heat that the onions didn’t start to brown.) And the lentils and stir to coat well in the oil. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, and 3/4 of the thyme. Bring back to the boil and simmer covered for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasoning and add the remaining thyme. Add the lemon juice little by little to taste.
