Fast lentil soup

All we need is
For vegetarian version:

2 cups of dry lentils
1 cup of sliced onions
1 stick of celery ( chopped)
1 little carrot ( chopped)
few cloves of garlic

A little bit of yogurt (plain)


Boil the lentils without salt in water until almost done
Fry the garlic, onions, celery and carrots, add a little bit of  salt and black pepper. You can add cumin, but not much.

When lentils are cooked, just pour the fried vegetables into the lentils. Mix well. Cook until lentils are done. Let the soup stay for a about 10-15 min. for aromas to mix.
Serve hot.
When the soup is in the serving dish , put one table spoon of yogurt on the top.

You can turn it into a lentil and sausage soup by adding into the fried vegetable  mixture a little bit of your favorite smoked salami. I add  Polish kielbasa, andouille sausage or smoked chorizo.
 
So you will get something like this:

Tarator – cold yoghurt soup

Do you like a Tzatziki sauce?  Well, imagine it is a soup, I mean really cold soup.  Balkan countries prepare it for hundreds of years; it is really refreshing when it’s 100 F outside. I prepare it every summer

So, what do you need?

2 large cucumbers or 1 English cucumber

1 can of yoghurt

3-4 stems of dill

1 clove of garlic

Walnuts (you will be adding them in the end, so it’s up to you how much)

1 oz. of ether olive, vegetable oil, but the best sunflower oil (this is what I use)

Ice cold water

Salt

Sweet paprika - you can do without it, but it counter -acts the sourness of the yoghurt if you add it in

Clean the cucumbers from skin and seeds, you can ether slice them really fine or grind them to little pc's.

Cut the dill really fine

Chop the clove of garlic, if you can do almost paste like – the best

Mix cucumber, salt, oil, garlic and dill

Mix yoghurt with ice water 3:1, mix really well until smooth

Add the mixture of cucumber, oil, garlic, dill and salt, mix well.

Check for salt

Put in refrigerator overnight. If you do not have time to cool it overnight, just reduce cold water and add some crushed ice to it, it will melt into yoghurt and make it cold

Before serving, mix one more time until it’s smooth.

Serve in a dish the way it is, but you can add crushed walnut and sweet paprika in moderation

Before I go to a Mexican restaurant, I always ask, if they serve this.....

Menudo !!!

This a spicy Mexican soup, made from beef tripe with or without hominy (corn), boiled for hours with herbs and spices

The soup is fat, very rich

The richness can be "cut" with lime juice, salsa. I usually add onion, cilantro, extra salsa , squeeze lots of lime and add just a pinch of Mexican oregano.  It goes ideal with beer, tequila ext.

For lots of people, this soup is not everyday food. So, if I see on the menu in a restaurant this soup, then I am  absolutely sure, that Mexican and  people from Latin America go there to eat.  

Sturgeon soup

Sturgeon  soup

This a version of old Ukrainian, Russian soup called "Ukha"

Once in a while I have a luck to get one of those beautiful fishes. It's big fat and wonderful. Actually, there is not much you have to do to it. Just let it shine by itself. The main word here is fish FAT!

I cut it in pieces and put in a boiling pan with lot's of water, with an large onion, carrot, 2-3 celery sticks, 10-15 black pepper corns, 5-6 dry laurel leaves  and some salt.

Let it simmer for an hour and a half may be two. Do not let it boil rapidly, because the fish stock will become muddy. Check when the fish is done. Remove the fish, filter the fish stock, check for salt

Serve pieces of fish with carrot and parsley.

It is wonderful on a cold day


Enjoy.

My photos