Imagine my surprise when I discovered this little known sonnet written by William Shakespeare in 1612 – can you believe it?? I simply had to make the soup!!
From what pot doth yonder soup come? Alas, my heart is a twitter with love for you, Soupwench.*Thou doth take many splendid traditional ingredients such as chipotle chile, cumin, and freshly squeezed lime juice, and thou doth add coconut milk. Soupwench, what hath thou donest to me-ist? My lonely heart shall ache for many fortnights till you give me this recipe. Or at least make me this luscious stew. Hark!
*Editor’s note: Soupwench is my great, great, great grandmother.
If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain you will love this soup. If you don’t like those things and do not know the song I am quoting, you will also like this soup, but you might want to listen to more music from the seventies. So here’s the deal with this soup – we started with a traditional carrot soup and decided to go a little nuts with it. We threw in some exotic spices, tossed in some honey, coconut milk, and other surprises. And out popped this baby. Oh what a sweet and spicy baby it is. But it isn’t a baby. It’s a soup. That you’ll like. A lot. So toss on your grass skirt and coconut bra (men too! You know you own one! You hid it in your sock drawer…), and dance around your apartment with a bowl of this soup. Or your office on casual Friday.
I discovered this soup late one night when I was surfing through Youtube videos. Apparently it has been viewed by 10.5 billion people, and counting. Listen to this crazy story – Susan Red Lentil, this shy little soup from a small village, auditioned for a show called Britain’s Got Soup. She’s not the prettiest of soups – she has no carrots or celery, and, well, she’s never been pureed. But the minute she heated up, the entire audience jumped to their feet. I had never seen anything like it. The judges where aghast. What depth of flavor! Astonishing bold tastes! Such complex textures! Where did it come from?? And of course, now the debate starts. Should Susan Red Lentil pluck her lentils? Should she clean up her bowl? I don’t think so. I think Susan Red Lentil is perfect just the way she is.
