By Katherine
Nonfat yogurt never tasted so good
Summer arrives before spring in the South. The chances of us craving a hearty bowl of soup for much longer are about as strong as our chances of making it to June before turning on the air conditioning for good. Our final soup before we said so long to the winter that never was: Nick Stellino’s lamb and lentil stew. It’s in a cookbook of his we’ve had for years, but we somehow neglected the recipe. The ingredients come together beautifully — cinnamon, cumin, mint — ours is already flourishing. I made only small changes, grinding cumin from the seeds and using a cinnamon stick. Check out his recipe, and if you’ve never tried it definitely make strained yogurt to top your bowl.
To do so, Stellino calls for placing a cup of plain yogurt (we used nonfat Greek) in a a mesh strainer lined with paper towels or a coffee filter. Set the strainer over a bowl, cover and drain in the refrigerator for five hours or overnight.
Cucina Amore? Did your cookbook come with an Italian music CD? Well, with or without the CD, the cookbook is a good one and so is this recipe.
Mediterranean Flavors! No CD, drats. But it’s served us well nonetheless.
I love eating yoghurt like that! It’s almost like a yoghurt cheese and it becomes so thick and creamy.
Word is our 80 degree weather is taking a downturn to 29 degrees so I could get to the store and fire up the pot for soup. Lamb feels Springlike to me but I know what you mean about making soup- the weather has to be conducive,
Strained yogurt is wonderful! This looks perfect.
It looks and sounds amazing! Love the whole mix, what wonderful flavors each and all! Strained yogurt… will have to try!
Mmmm, I love yogurt in soups
Perfect – lamb goes so well with those flavours and the yogurt topping is the “icing on the cake”. Sort of!
I do like the idea of a cook book with music – great soup too
This stew/soup has decidedly Moroccan flavours Katherine; it looks lovely. It’s cooled down in Toronto so I’m still in the mood for soup! I love making ‘yogurt cheese’ because it can be substituted for cream cheese in many recipes!
So similar to our Syrian Lentil Soup… my g-parents do it with minced meat like yours as well
Sounds good. Winter is trying to stage a return – forecast low of 24 on Tuesday morning – so maybe we can fit in a few more soups, too.
I had to chuckle at the title of this post. Clever! I have one more soup recipe that I made last week, but I’m almost afraid to post it. We’ve had such a rough winter which has turned into beautiful warm temps for us, I hate to jinx it.
Cinnamon, cumin and mint. Sounds like a gourmet soup, a hearty one at that.
Interesting combination. I’m sure it comes together very well.
What a great combination of flavors – would love to try it! And the strained yogurt sounds really great – I should remember to give that a shot . . .
Next it will be cold cucumber soup.. not for a while tho! have to plant the cuc’s first. have you started planting your garden?..I am planting okra because of you guys this year.. all those lovely okra recipes.. c
Yep, we’ve started!
This sounds delightful! I almost always use non fat yogurt
I think I prefer it…
Great flavors and ingredients – this is my kind of soup.
Looks great. We eat soup year around especially for lunch.
This looks like another one for me to try! Thank you.
Your soup sounds good! You’re right–it will be too warm for soup soon so we need to enjoy it while we can!
What a warming and delicious soup! Yum
Love the use of yoghurt too
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Beautiful post! I am a soup lover…I used to make yogurt cheese balls using the same straining technique and then drop them in seasoned oil….I may just have to try it again!
Definitely a soup worth trying, even with warm weather. I’m sure the yogurt and the mint balance it and add a “cool” factor! It looks really yummy.
What lovely flavors! I’d really be thankful if I could leave the AC off until June…
Greek yogurt is already so creamy.. I imagine it does turn into a cheesy goodness:) Your title caught my eye and made me smile.. “Soups On” turned into “Soups Off” .. love it!
Katherine, your soup looks and sounds divine – I love the combination of lamb, lentils, cumin and cinnamon – it must have given the dish an almost Middle Eastern feel!
I love lamb, but I never thought o make it in a soup before. This looks so darn delicious. And I must admit, I will eat soup in the summer time, but only if I’m sick
Mike and Mr. N would be huge fans of this soup!
This looks delicious, and you are right about Summer, I am already sunburnt!
Oooh, I love the idea of yogurt on top – definitely giving it a try.
Yeah, it’s already getting well into the upper 80s down here… Time for gazpacho, eh?
Year round its hard to eat soup in Florida! But I somehow do regardless!!! Love strained yogurt, the taste and texture just improves so much!
I just love soups and with yogurt such a perfect combination!
I hate that our soup season is so short. Nobody wants soup when it’s 110 degrees outside. I need to live someplace could, that’s all there is to it. Did you use red lentils in this one?
Yep, we normally use the brownish green ones. The red ones I think cooked even faster. This was so fast.