Red Lentil Soup

I got all geeky about writing about my theories of making soup that I forgot to put up a recipe for the one that was making me wax poetic in the first place.

Red Lentil Soup--originally inspired by a Mollie Katzen book--(would that I could remember which one)

1 large onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
1 T ground cumin
1 T sweet paprika
1 T chile powder or as much cayenne as you can stomach--for me that would be about 1/2 tsp
1 can stewed tomatoes with juice, rough chopped or broken up with your hands
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
4 cups of water
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large pot (8 qts gives you a lot of good wiggle room) over medium heat.  In a smaller pot, heat up the water over high heat (if it comes to a boil before the veg is done, just put it on low to keep it warm).  Film the bottom of the large pot thinly with olive oil.  Add the onion, carrot, and celery.  Using a fork, a mortar & pestle, or a small food processor, smash the garlic into the spices...you will probably have to add a little water to make this easier--1 T should do the trick.  Saute the veg for about 10 minutes, at which point the carrots and the celery should be fairly tender...they won't get much more tender, so if, after 10 minutes, you feel like they are not as tender as you would like, continue to saute them to your liking.  Then add the garlic/spice paste.  Saute this for 1-2 minutes until you can smell everything and the paste has darkened in color slightly.  Add the tomatoes and scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze everything.  Add the lentils and finally the water.  Bring everything to a boil, reduce to low to simmer and cook until the lentils are tender but still have a little bit of bite to them: this should take 30-45 minutes.  When things are done, add salt and pepper until it tastes delicious (you could do this before, but salt can make legumes tough if you add it while they are cooking...lentils aren't as sensitive as bigger beans like black beans, for instance, but I wait to add salt just to be on the safe side).

For garnish/a little herby brightness, I threw on some fresh oregano, parsley, and cilantro, that somehow, through the miracle of a plug-in appliance I have not managed to kill with my black thumbs.