Making Brother Juniper's acquaintance

I recently passed along to Dylan a copy of one of my all-time favorite cookbooks: Sacramental Magic in a Small-Town Café: Recipes and Stories from Brother Juniper's Café, or "Brother Juniper" for short, as it's referred to by everyone I know. It is definitely the most entertaining cookbook I know to read straight through, if you read cookbooks for something other than the recipes. The chapters on "The Coleslaw Reaction Revisited" ("Boy, that's good slaw!") and "Holy Smoke" ("'They try!' said Mama Flint. 'Oh honey, they try, yeah they try!'") are alone worth the price of admission.

While thumbing through Brother Juniper again recently, I was surprised how long it's been since I made this soup, given my love of all things lentil. With the availability of great chorizo from Free Union Grass Farm (which Dylan and I recently visited together), I thought this would be right up Dylan's alley, and I wasn't wrong. Dylan swooned over the soup, declaring it the best meal we've made together since he got home, and vowing to add it to his dinner rotation. There are many other treasures in the book for Dylan to discover, including the California Hoagies with "Secret Sauce" Dressing, which Mom and I used to have on a weekly basis.

Brother Juniper's Spanish Lentil and Sausage Soup

Adapted from Sacramental Magic in a Small-Town Café (1994) by Br. Peter Reinhart

Time from start to finish: ~45 minutes (depending on your lentils)

The soup has no added spices other than what it's in the sausage, so you need to use a spicy sausage here. I haven't tried it, but Reinhart says you can make a vegetarian version of this soup by substituting vegetarian soup base for the water and adding paprika, cayenne, black pepper, and a touch of vinegar.

4 cups (950 grams) water
8 ounces (1¼ cups) uncooked green lentils, picked over and rinsed
kosher salt
1 pound fresh chorizo, Creole sausage, or linguica, casings removed (see note)
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
8 to 10 ounces frozen, chopped spinach (one 10-ounce package, or you can use half a 1-pound bag of Trader Joe's Chopped Spinach)
2 large tomatoes, diced; or 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes (regular or fire roasted) with their juice
Chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, for garnish

    1. In a pot no smaller than a 4-quart saucier, bring the water to a boil. Add the lentils and 1 teaspoon salt, cover, and turn the heat down to maintain a steady simmer. Cook until the lentils are tender but not mushy, often about 25 to 30 minutes, but the time varies depending on the lentils, so start checking at 15 minutes.
    2. Meanwhile, heat a 10- or 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is browned. Remove the sausage to a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving as much of the oil as possible in the pan.
    3. Stir the onions into the oil (you can add some extra-virgin olive oil to the pan if your sausage wasn’t very fatty), and season with a pinch of salt. Sauté until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute (don't burn the garlic). If there’s a lot of fond in the pan, you can deglaze with a little water or sherry vinegar if you like. Remove the pan from the heat.
    4. When the lentils are ready, stir in the sausage, onion and garlic, spinach, and tomatoes with their juice. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Serve promptly, garnishing each serving with the chopped parsley or cilantro. Makes 6 servings.