LENTIL SOUP!!

dudes!
what the eff are mayacoba beans?
well, they're also called peruano beans....
y'know what that means?
me neither.
but, i DO know that they're thick-skinned, meaty, fat, and delicious.
uh-huh.
my homeboy, travis, a.k.a @vegan_magic_time,
sent me some dried jauns an age ago, and i fired a handful of 'em into some soup....
i'm glad i did, because they turned the taste and texture up to eleven, neighbors.
for real.
it was gonna just be lentil soup.
but, then i started freakin' it off because i can't help myself...
as a result it was also so much MORE,
which was great news, since that's kind of the only way to go around here-
too much is the right amount.
seriously.
check the teleport:

MENTAL FRUIT!!
this one has SO much flavor.
i mean it-
there's all kinds of exxxtras activating all the expert excellence from the broth to the beans,
and all the other other stuff in between.
word.
the broth was the remains of a seitan bath.
y'know?
no?
oh, okay- well when you make vital-wheat gluten 'meat', you boil it in broth-
the broth is composed of better-than-bouillon veggie concentrate,
8 or so cups of water, a heavy shake of tamari, and a few shakes of liquid smoke-
the thing is, the seitan itself imparts a thick umami magic within the water,
and it really transcends any average soup stock.
it's verrrry tasty, homeboi. no joke.
-
guys,
i had a whole vidalia onion chunked up;
and three cloves of sliced garlic;
and a fat, peeled, coarse-chopped carrot;
and three stalks of diced celery;
and two cups of red, orange, and purple baby grape tomatoes
all sauteing away in olive oil in a big pot.
i added some pink salt, and black pepper, and two cups of chopped skin-on delicata squash.
yup.
it cooks way down, and the skin gets soft, and it tastes great.
-
i hit it with a handful of nootch;
a big ol' shake of GPOP;
fresh parsley, and a whole lotta dried sage and thyme.....
that's good stuff.
next, i deglazed the semi-seared veg with a few tablespoons of red wine vinegar,
and added the mayacobas and the lentils (a cup of the former, and two cups of cooked lentils)
the seitan broth went in right over the whole thing, and i let it simmer forever on low heat.
yeah, i mean, it takes a while for the beans to hydrate, man, that's just how it goes.
i was making it up, so i didn't presoak my peruanos. womp womp.
-
i turned the heat back up to medium-high after a few hours of simmering,
and added a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste;
and adjusted the sage and thyme and GPOP and nootch (i added a bunch more);
plus, i threw in two BIG handfuls of baby spinach,
a punch of fresh chopped parsley, and another 'nother fat handful of baby kale-
yup.
MORE vegetables is always the right call.
-
lastly,
i grilled up a few cups of shredded green cabbage.
yeah!!
barely blackened in a bit of oil and salt, for a deeper, richer, manlier flavor.
tossin' that into the pot was the coup de grâce for my whole face, bruh.
-
with a slice of homemade sourdough toasted and buttered on the side,
and a few fresh kale babies for color,
and parsley and black pepper sprankles?
c'mon.
that takes simple sucka soups to the future of fresh-to-deathliness, duder.
if i'm gonna eat it, and i ate a LOT of it, then i wanna freakin' taste it.
this one had me shook, and slurping the last little sips out of the bottom of the bowl.
uh-huh.
real life super-elite expert vegan culinary concentration is what i've got.
i do what i do, and when it ends up like this?
i feel good, i feel great, i feel wonderful.
that's the truth.
lentil soup, activated.
that's what's up;
never quiet, never soft.....