Receta Lentil Soup with Chorizo; friends and lovers
I love soup and could happily eat it every day.
Mon mari doesn’t share my enthusiasm.
We compromise….
Since winter seems to be on the wane I decided this was going to be soup week.
I have a few soups that need re-posting (such as this one) and I want to do it while people can still appreciate them.
This is another of my favorites and mon mari is always happy when there is chorizo in the house. A little bit packs a lot of flavor – even more if you get hot or extra spicy.
Lentil Soup with Chorizo
Total time: 60 minutes
Ingredients:
- 5oz (150gr) chorizo
- 1 1/2 cups small, green lentils ‘du Puy’ or tan lentils
- 1 cup red or coral lentils
- 1 medium carrot, roughly chopped
- 1 rib celery, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 cups (48oz, 1440ml) of beef stock
- 2 cups (15oz, 450gr) whole tomatoes, chopped, juices reserved
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 – 2 cups tomato juice, optional, to thin
Instructions
Sauté onion, garlic, celery and carrot in olive oil until tender and starting to color.
Add paprika, cumin and sauté 1 minute longer.
Add both lentils, herbs, tomatoes with their juices, beef stock and bring to a boil.
Cover, reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.
Slice chorizo into bite-size pieces.
Add chorizo and as much tomato juice as desired (if any) to thin, cover and simmer 10 minutes longer.
Serve.
Valentine’s Day is this weekend.
We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.
It’s not really celebrated in France. There are no cards, one does not wish other people ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’, and there are no cute little parties for children in the schools.
Couples / lovers, married or otherwise, may have a romantic dinner, and small gifts, like chocolates or flowers may be given….
Or not.
It’s just not a big deal.
If one wished a co-worker or friend Happy Valentine’s Day chances are there would be a lot of confusion and maybe a bit of worry.
Friends and lovers are not confused here….. And they’re not interchangeable
The French do not understand the concept of ‘marrying one’s best friend’.
Why would one do that?
One marries a lover.
A friend is a friend and a lover is a lover. One does things with lovers that one does not do with friends; one tells things to friends one does not tell to lovers… and vice versa. They are of equal but different value.
As long as I’m on the subject of friends I’ll pass on some more info.
There are 7 levels of friendship in France, in the following order:
1. Connaissance – a passing acquaintance
2. Ami d’ami – a friend of a friend.
3. Camarade – a school friend. If you are an adult it’s assumed that you have known them for a long time and are close but not really close.
4. Copain – a friend, someone you hang out with and go to parties with.
5. Pote – a buddy, closer than un copain, but still not un ami.
6. Ami – a very close friend, someone you have known for a long time and know very well. It takes time and effort to cultivate an ‘ami’.
7. Meilleur ami – best friend. the person who knows everything about you and you can tell anything and everything to. But you do not marry this person…. It’s taken years to get to this level, why mess it up?
All of the above information is courtesy of a weekly video I get from Géraldine at Comme Une Francaise TV.
Now I’m going to go categorize all the people I know…..
Last update on February 11, 2015
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