{"id":25,"date":"2008-11-25T10:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T10:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/2008\/11\/25\/cold-nights-so-long"},"modified":"2008-11-25T10:22:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T10:22:00","slug":"cold-nights-so-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/2008\/11\/25\/cold-nights-so-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold nights, so long&#8230; [spiced pepper and lentil soup]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_8378.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_8378.jpg?w=200\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nBlimey it&#8217;s cold. I returned from a scintillating Italian oral class yesterday and practically fell upon the washing up, principally as a means of warming my ruddy hands. It&#8217;s the sort of weather that calls for hot, spicy soup. Soup that warms the heart and puts a spring in your step. And there is proper stock in the fridge from last week&#8217;s roast chicken, a more successful stock than that of some friends&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday night I went to their house for roast chicken, a real treat after an academically unproductive but quite &#8216;heavy&#8217; weekend. I discovered the next morning that they had forgotten about the stock they put on and left it overnight, waking the next morning to a flat that was practically vibrating with the stench of charred chicken carcass. The place now has a police line around it.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the soup&#8230;.you might want to add a tin of tomatoes to this just to add another layer &#8211; I almost reckon you should, I just didn&#8217;t have one at the time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Spiced pepper and lentil soup<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Serves 2-3<\/p>\n<p>1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped<br \/>\n1\/2 teaspoon hot chilli powder<br \/>\n2 peppers (red, yellow, orange all fine &#8211; avoid green)<br \/>\n100g red lentils<br \/>\n1 tin of tomatoes<br \/>\n750ml hot chicken or vegetable stock (cubed is grand)<br \/>\nSalt, pepper and sugar<br \/>\nYoghurt to finish<\/p>\n<p>Heat a little oil in a saucepan and add the onion. Season and cook, covered, over a gentle heat for 5 minutes or so. Remove the lid and increase the flame. Stir in the chilli powder for 30 seconds, then add the peppers, lentils and tomatoes. Stir for a minute or two to get them going, then add the stock. Season with a little sugar, bring to the boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the lentils are fully cooked (no <em>al dente<\/em> here, please) and liquidize. Taste for seasoning and serve with a blob of yoghurt. Will keep a human body warm for 1-2 hours. Top up as needed.<\/p>\n<div id=\"geo-post-25\" class=\"geo geo-post\" style=\"display: none\"><span class=\"latitude\">0<\/span><span class=\"longitude\">0<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blimey it&#8217;s cold. I returned from a scintillating Italian oral class yesterday and practically fell upon the washing up, principally as a means of warming my ruddy hands. It&#8217;s the sort of weather that calls for hot, spicy soup. Soup that warms the heart and puts a spring in your step. And there is proper [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[465,674,725,800],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zdji-p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesramsden.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}