Lentil Chili Soup

Got this recipe out of the newspaper a few months ago and just had time to try it.
Here is the recipe and instructions as it appeared:

1 cup lentils, any variety
8 cups stock
2-3 jalapeno or serano chiles, stemmed, seeded and rough chopped
1/2 a small onion, finely chopped
1 Tbls fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp toasted cumin, ground
salt and pepper to taste
kefir (Russian yogurt stuff) as garnish

Combine all ingredients except kefir and salt and pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook for 45 minutes to an hour or until lentils are soft. If liquid appears too thick, add as much a cup of water or stock. Remove soup from heat, let cool for 10-15 minutes. Puree small batches in blender . Return soup to pot and season with salt and pepper to taste. heat to serving temperature. Top servings with sour cream. Serve with tortillas.

I didn't have stock so I used 8 cups of water and 3 Tbl of bullion instead. I used jalapenos. I did not have fresh ginger either. So I used 1 tsp ground ginger instead. I also used regular old ground cumin instead of toasting the seeds then grinding them myself. Our stove is a hot stove so after I got it to boil I put it on its very lowest setting for the 45 minutes where it boiled quietly the whole time. I skipped the blender step. I'd rather see what's in my soup than guess in the midst of a puree. But feel free to blend if that's what you're into. I actually could have bought the kefir, but Dana says it's pretty gross, so we just used sour cream. I tried the finished soup with both tortillas and tortilla chips and I liked the chips better than the plain tortilla, but both were good.

My recommendation: yummy! Hot enough to make you sweat a little but not so hot your tongue hates you afterward. The finished soup is a cooked-spinach green shade, so it may take some convincing for children, but it smells delicious and tastes yummy too!