You know it’s winter in Vancouver when you can’t find your raincoat or umbrella because they’re hanging in the shower, still not quite dry from the last time you used them. It’s the time of year that warm, hearty food is really appealing, the kind that lights a tiny furnace inside you. The kind that used to make you salivate as the smell drifted upstairs while you were (pretending to) do your homework. Enter this awesome soup.
My sister ordered a bowl of soup like this in a restaurant while I was visiting her in Amsterdam (PS –the Dutch do soup really well, I think it might be the antidote to their chilly, all-weather bike riding). It was simply called ‘lentil soup’ on the menu (at least the English version) but she gave me a taste and it was so rich and flavourful, but most interestingly, there was a nutty pop happening that totally worked. It came from toasted pine nuts –not as an expensive, toasty garnish, but stirred right into the soup.
