- You're a vegan, right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, so am I.
You might wanna try the lentil soup.
I made it this morning.
It's Victor's recipe.
Gracias, Victor.
He's from the Yucatan.
- Soup's, yeah, it's very good.
It's ace, yeah, it's lovely.
- [Brad] Hey, guys and welcome back
to Binging with Brad-bish
where this week we're taking a look
at the lentil soup from Moon Knight.
Babish asked me to take on this vegan recipe
because I now have a plant-based show on the channel
called the Soy Boys.
It's a story of friendship, food
and my dear friend Christopher's journey towards health.
Next month, we're sharing a casserole recipe
talking about comfort food
and our relationship with the things we take solace in
and if you don't think I sound like a self-righteous douche
saying that, you might like the show.
All right, let's make some lentil soup.
Here, we have the makings of a sofrito
featuring an unfortunately placed carrot that we will move.
That's better.
Arthur mentions Victor is from the Yucatan Peninsula
and so we're using sofrito as the flavor base for our soup
to give it Mexican influence
and to get it started, we're shopping one onion,
three Roma tomatoes, one jalapeno and a carrot
which isn't normally part of sofrito
but lentil soup needs carrots.
Next up, we are going to meze
the meatiest of fungi, mushrooms.
This is going to enhance our soup
with some plant-based meaty textures
that we will further amplify
by seasoning them with a chorizo spice mixture
consisting of one tablespoon ancho chili powder,
one and a half teaspoon smoked paprika,
three fourths a teaspoon of cumin,
a half a teaspoon of kosher salt,
a half teaspoon dried oregano,
a fourth a teaspoon dried thyme,
a fourth a teaspoon garlic powder,
a fourth a teaspoon black pepper
and the smallest of pinches of allspice and ground cinnamon
placed into a comically small bowl.
Now it's time to talk lentils.
Here, you see red lentils on the right
and green or brown lentils on the left
or as I like to call them hazeltils.
Most recipes call for the green or brown variety in soups
because they hold their shape better
but I don't particularly like the texture
of an al dente lentil.
and because this is my house, my kitchen, my world,
I'm gonna use red.
So into a pan with two tablespoons of oil over medium heat
goes a cup and a half of red lentils
and we are going to toast them over a medium heat
until their color intensifies because I,
well, a recipe told me to do this one time years ago
and I have never questioned it.
Once our lentils are looking colorful,
we are going to add four cups of no chicken stock.
Give the mixture a stir and bring to a simmer
before covering and setting aside
and if you're not dancing while you're cooking
then you're just cooking.
With our lentils simmering,
we continue cooking with our sofrito.
Here, we're sauteing the jalapeno and garlic
over medium heat and a little bit of oil
before adding yellow onion
and cooking until the edges become translucent
then we're adding the tomato, carrots
and a spice mixture consisting of cumin,
smoked paprika, cinnamon and kosher salt
giving everything a mix
and covering over medium low heat
to cook for about 15 minutes
until everything is looking more jammy
at which point our lentils are done
and as you can see, they have not held their shape.
I know it doesn't look great yet but just bear with me.
Now we're going to add the sofrito to the lentils
and mix well before starting on our mushrooms.
Oh, hey and would you look at that,
a surprise guest appearance by my friend
and fellow Soy Boy, Chris.
Hey, Chris.
Oh, you wanna try some?
Okay, yeah, go for it.
I mean, it's not really done yet but if you wanna taste,
oh, you're gonna use your finger.
Okay, oh, yep.
I'm glad, I'm glad you did that.
Let's make some mushrooms.
Into the pan from whence our sofrito came,
we are going to add a bit of oil,
eight ounces of sliced baby bella mushrooms
and our chorizo seasoning
which we will saute over medium heat
until the mushrooms are deeply browned
at which point we will add them to the soup,
give everything a stir and serve immediately.
And there you have it, folks,
a Mexican inspired red lentil soup
that is admittedly closer to porridge than soup
but I do think it is delicious.
The texture of the red lentils make this soup almost creamy
and the heat present in the sofrito and chorizo seasoning
make this soup even more warm and comforting
but what does Chris think?
Yep, those are hand motions of approval, folks.
We've done it
but what if we want to make a Mexican inspired lentil soup
with readily apparent lentils
and the way the internet tells me is correct?
In that case, we're going to need limes
because we are making a sopa de lima.
This Yucatan style lime soup normally uses chicken
but we'll be swapping that out for brown lentils
to make it suitable for likes of Arthur and Steven
although maybe not all of his personalities.
We'll start with a fortified stock.
I'm heating one tablespoon of neutral oil
over medium high heat and then adding one canela stick,
one teaspoon black peppercorns,
two whole cloves and one eighth teaspoon ground allspice
and cooking for 30 seconds or until fragrant
which I will illustrate by moving my hand like this.
Once that's smelling good and possessed by heat,
we're going to add six cups of not chicken stock
along with one half white onion, one bell pepper
and three garlic cloves
before bringing the mixture to a simmer
covering and moving to the small burner
so that we can make some tortilla chips.
Just look at these tortillas.
They're soft and naive unhardened by life in the frying pan.
Let's change that.
To do that, I'm cutting these tortillas into strips
to lie in wait while I heat precisely the amount of oil
I had left in this bottle over medium high heat
until a frying temperature is achieved.
If your kitchen is absent a thermometer like mine,
you can test that by dropping in a tortilla strip
every couple of minutes to see if it bubbles.
Just make sure you don't wander off while you're doing this
unless you also want to cook your house.
Once our test strip is bubbling,
we're going to fry the remainder in batches
for two to three minutes each or until crisp.
Transferring to a paper towel lined plate to cool
and seasoning with kosher salt.
Now we return to our stock
which has simmered successfully for 20 minutes
and we're going to strain this liquid
and set it aside while we get another sofrito going.
The process for this is the same as our first recipe
with the optional step of dirtying an extra pan
before you realize there's an empty stock pot
right next to you.
Once the vegetables have softened,
we're going to add one and a half cups of brown lentils,
a half teaspoon of Mexican oregano
and four cups of our fortified stock
bringing the whole thing to a simmer,
covering and cooking for 25 to 35 minutes
or until the lentils reach your desired level of doneness
and if they never seem done enough,
maybe you're a red lentil guy too.
Jokes aside, after 35 minutes, our lentils are done I think
so we're seasoning to taste with salt and pepper
and then finishing this sopa de lima
adding one sliced lime to the pot
and letting it stew for one minute
then we'll remove and discard the pieces
and we are ready to serve.
To do that, we'll place a bounty of soup in our bowl,
line the lentils with limes,
place strips strategically center
and sprinkle with cilantro.
And here we have our sopa de lima con lentejas.
Okay, this is really good.
The broth has an incredible depth of flavor
and the lime shines through
with a brightness that would make this work really well
in warmer weather or climates
and the brown lentils do make it look
a lot more like lentil soup
but I'll leave it up to you to decide
if that's a good thing.
(calm music)