Simple Red Lentil Soup

onion
butter or olive oil
red lentils
water or stock or bouillon
ground pepper
lemon juice

Chop half an onion (to serve 1-2) or a whole onion (to serve 3-6).
In a small or medium saucepan, sauté chopped onion in 2-3 tbsp butter
(usually for company) or olive oil (usually for everyday).
Cook slowly until onions are glassy. Don't let them brown or the flavor won't be right.
Rinse lentils. How much? Enough to fill about 1/4 of the pot, or less. They'll expand at least double, maybe triple.
Add lentils to the pot and stir them around for half a minute.
Add water or stock to cover, or up to fill 3/4 or less of the pot.
Plain water will do, but stock gives more flavor. I like to use "Better Than Bouillon" goop by "Superior Touch" brand, which gives great flavor and extra nutrition - but only a tsp or two, since if you add too much it gets too salty. Start with less, then add to taste. I prefer to add the goop after the lentils are nearly cooked. Similarly with the liquid, start with less and add as needed, so that the lentils have enough water around them to cook without getting too thick.
Cook lentils until they’ve changed color to yellow and they're very soft.
Add freshly ground black pepper and lemon juice to taste. (Also salt if you've used unsalted water or broth.)
Puree in blender. (This is optional, but I think it's worth it.)
Enjoy!

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This soup is almost effortless, or at least very rewarding for the little bit of effort that it is. I try to always keep the dried red lentils on hand, since this soup is good nutrition/protein for everyday but also nice enough for company. Red lentils are just green/brown lentils with the husks taken off. They vary a bit - smaller sized seem to have better flavor, if you can find them, often in Indian groceries, but most health foods stores carry the regular larger ones.

I've been making some version of this soup since my Findhorn days, even tho they didn't actually serve it there. I learned it from a British legume cookbook - tho the rest of the recipes in that book were a bit grim! This was the soup that was served at the wedding when Michael and I got married - since after we'd met those institutional cooks who were in charge of the meal (they came with the University alumni venue, which was pretty cheap since we were pretty poor) we weren't sure we trusted them to come up with anything tasty. Indeed, the parts of that meal that we left to them weren't very good, but I gave them the basic recipe and they didn't manage to screw up this lovely, easy soup.
-Auntie Reenie