Lentil Soup with Harissa, and Cheesy Bread

It is day 4 and the theme with the marathon cooks seems to be all about flavor- spices and seasonings and pantry ingredients that add a punch! (and I hope y'all like lentil soup, because we have three versions)...

Cumin: Middle Eastern Lentil Soup and Tiranga Jeera Rice

Saffron: Foccacia and Carrot Kheer

Nigella: Naan with Nigella Seeds

Garam Masala: Upma, Cauliflower Peas Curry, Gobhi ki Subzi

Chole Masala: Punjabi Chole

Tandoori Masala: Vegetable Seekh Kebabs

Kala Masala: Masale Bhaat

Magic Sambhar Podi: Aloo Gobi

Italian Seasoning: Butternut Squash Manicotti

Poppy seeds: Sweet Crumble

Garlic: Five Lentil Soup

Sun dried tomatoes: Sun dried tomato Paratha

Pesto: Potato, Kale and Pasta Salad

Cinnamon, Nutmeg and other warm spices: Oat Crinkled Cookies, Pumpkin (& Banana) Bread and Ragi-Sweet Potato Sourdough Bread

Vanilla: Strawberry Smoothie

Salt (yes, sometimes that's all you need): Tostones

A Tex-Mex flavor explosion: Chicken Fajitas with Guacamole

Next, we have some dishes from Southern India that sing with a medley of spices and seasonings: Three kinds of rice and Pachai Morekozhambu, Paruppu Thuvayal, Azhugal Mangai Pachadi

Finally, how to spice up cooked rice- Rice Pakodas

I took the spicy route today too, with the blazing hot Moroccan spice blend, harissa. As every new month begins, I run out and grab Sauce Magazine from the lobby of the library or one of the local grocery stores. It is a free monthly newspaper here in St. Louis, full of great food essays, restaurant reviews and recipes. A few months ago, I read (and cut out and lovingly stashed in my recipe box) a column on harissa, complete with a recipe and a list of ways to use this beautiful spice blend, and it was written by none other than Becky (she of the beanstalk).

So Recipe #5 is Harissa. I followed Becky's recipe closely. In preparation for making harissa, I added a few new ingredients to my pantry- caraway seeds (shahjeera in Hindi, no, that's not correct), and some assorted dried peppers, like guajillos and moritas.

In my little spice grinder, the harissa came together quickly- rehydrated peppers, toasted spices, garlic, olive oil, salt.

Tonight, I used the harissa to add a little something something to a simple lentil soup. I sauteed onions and carrots in the pressure cooker, added lentils, tomato puree, salt, pepper and water and pressure cooked it into a soup in minutes. Then I stirred in 2 teaspoons or so of the harissa and a handful of minced cilantro. Suddenly the humble lentil soup was transformed into something exotic.

To go with the lentil soup, I splurged calorie-wise and made Recipe #4: Hot Cheesy Bread, inspired by this recipe. One look at those volcanoes of cheese and I knew I had to try this recipe just once as a special treat.

For me, this was a two-ingredient wonder, because I already had the five minute olive oil dough in the fridge (here's the recipe for those who don't have access to the book).

So all we had to do was shred some cheese, pat the dough into a rectangle, sprinkle the cheese, roll into a log, cut into 8-10 rolls and bake 'em. Here they are, fresh out of the oven:

Good night, all!