arise legumbre king arise!

I like to eat meat as much as the next bear does but I grew up eating veggies and the Indian bear staple was dal which is a lentil soup. I purchased a bag of Hurst's Hambeens 15 bean soup when we were at Jungle Jim's and I finally decided now was the time to get back into the soup business. The soup comes with a seasoning packet for what they describe as a cajun soup with sausage.


15 bean soup package

I wanted more specifics on what was in the seasoning package but couldn't figure it out so I decided to freestyle in true CK manner using the yellow dal my moms and grandma used to always make as inspiration. I began by throwing away the seasoning packet and soaking the beans for 8 hours.


beans hanging out in the water

I then threw them in a pot with 4 cups of water and 4 cups of trader joes chicken stock and let them come up to a boil. Time to prep the seasoning: I juiced 1.5 lemons. Diced up 1 onion and some cooked chicken breast. Smashed and chopped up 3 cloves of garlic and it was off to the frying pan.


As the beans were boiling for about 30 minutes I cooked down the onions, garlic, and chicken and then added the seasoning to the soup and let it continue to boil. I added various other seasonings including turmeric, some bay leaves, a little bit of kosher salt, some red pepper, a dash of garam masala and let it all simmer. I then let the soup cool down and refrigerated it over night so all the spices could blend.


Betty and I have been eating the soup all week and both of us have been really enjoying it. I cooked the soup Sunday and have lunch for the week. That's 10 meals between Betty and me -- come on now you can't beat that! It might be time to declare myself lentil king or better yet legumbre king! :)