Shorbet Adds 

(Egyptian Spiced Creamy Lentil Soup)

This was from a recipe of Claudia Roden in The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Although the soup looks somewhat thick here (esp as it was the next day), it was actually fairly creamy in texture. I ground up the dry red lentils, added water to them, covered them, and let them soak for a few hours, before adding them to the soup. (Red lentils don't usually need to be soaked, except by me. )

Aside from the lentils, this also contains onions, olive oil, ground cumin and coriander, and salt. A pinch of Indian pav bhaji masala spice mix stood in for ground red chili pepper. I used frozen chopped mirepoix (onion, carrot, and celery) for the carrot and celery in the recipe, as that's what I had.

The soup is supposed to be served with a garnish of fried onions, but I was too tired to add that. For the toasted pita bread croutons, I toasted half a pita, and then broke it up into irregularly-shaped, crunchy pieces. Instead of adding lemon juice directly to the soup right after it was cooked, I just squeeze a few drops of fresh lemon juice into the bowl, before I eat it.