Following tradition, I’m vegetarian for the first six weeks of the year, which means I’m in the thick of it now. I won’t repeat recipes I made last year, but today was a new one - this Moroccan Lentil Soup I found on allrecipes.com. It’s good but not great, and - let’s get this out of the way - it isn’t really Moroccan (the garam masala gives it away - this is Indian style). Easy to make, takes about one and a half to two hours total (it only took an hour total cooking time for me - go figure). Since most of that time is in the “let simmer” step - it doesn’t actually eat 2 hours of YOUR day, you just need to plan well in advance if you want it for dinner.
Next time I think I will make the following modifications. First, there’s entirely too much cardamom, so I’ll cut that in half. It could use any salt at all, so I’ll be adding that. And it’s really easy to go overboard on the ginger, so I may reduce that a bit - though it might be OK with less cardamom. Basically - too much cardamom! Some black pepper and coriander wouldn’t hurt as replacements, I think, and one commenter suggests adding cloves, which also doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Also, the tomatoes are understated - and since I have tomato paste around the house I might add three quarters of a tablespoon. But on the whole, tasty, inexpensive and easy to make!