Whenever I feel like having something warm, I go for a soup or a puree. The difference between them is only in the amount of liquid you’d add (plain water or the water in which the veggies have boiled). My favorite ingredients are red lentils, root vegetables – carrot, celeriac, parsnip, beets, etc – and pumpkin. And of course plenty of seasonings: ginger, garlic, cumin, turmeric, pepper, chilly, sumac, etc.
Even though I usually go straight to the same method of preparation as in raw food – mixing the ingredients all together – I learned that one of the main tricks of creating flavor when boiling vegetables is to add the seasonings while the process is going on. So, depending on what taste you want as dominant – sweet or spicy – bring the spices to the boil. If you have black or white cardamon seeds, cinnamon bark or bay leaves, these will definitely make the difference. Also adding some onion or garlic at this point will considerably enrich your dish flavor.
When the lentils and veggies have boiled – you can cook them together or separate – just mix everything in your food processor, add a bit of oil, salt and lemon juice and check if it allows more seasoning. Rather than adding too much oil, lemon or salt, focus on the spices 🙂
Here are a few of my favorite recipes:
Red lentils & sweet potato puree
list of ingredients
- red lentils
- carrot
- sweet potato
- grated ginger
- ground cinnamon
- ground cumin
- ground black pepper
- olive oil
- salt
- lemon juice
- sumac and ‘leurda’ (wild garlic) for serving
Pumpkin coconut puree
list of ingredients
- pumpkin
- carrots
- celeriac/ parsnip
- grated coconut
- grated ginger
- ground cumin
- olive oil
- salt
- poppy seeds/ black sesame for decoration
Red lentil cream with turmeric (photo in the post header)
list of ingredients
- red lentils
- pumpkin
- parsnip
- onion
- cinnamon
- grated ginger
- ground turmeric
- chilly powder
- olive oil
- salt
