Pink Lentil Soup with Lamb Kofte

Serves 4

One afternoon in the fall of 2005, my business partner, Steve, walked into the kitchen at Marigold, and said, “I think I might have just made a reservation for Craig LaBan.” As restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Craig was (and still is) the most authoritative voice judging the city’s restaurants. And then Steve added, “By the way, the lobster soup on the menu isn’t going over very well with our customers.” As a first-time executive chef, I was in love with this dish of hot lobster broth poured over chilled coconut panna cotta. To me, it was an ingenious technique that brought these two delicious preparations together tableside. But to our guests, apparently, it was just lukewarm soup.

With my first opportunity to have my cooking professionally reviewed, I scrambled to find a new soup. Searching for inspiration at a local market, I spied a container of pink lentils. Pink lentils have great flavor but lose their shape after cooking—perfect for a pureed soup. They cook quickly and color the soup a beautiful golden orange. I had a whole lamb in the walk-in, so I smoked the neck and added it to the pot to give the soup some depth. Then I ground the shoulder to make lamb-stuffed cabbage dumplings.

As I mixed together the ingredients for the stuffing—ground lamb, grated onion, parsley, and cinnamon—the soup surprised me: It took on an Israeli profile. Following my instincts, I charred the ground lamb kofte in a pan and then wrapped them in cabbage leaves to finish cooking in a low oven. To me, the soup tasted just like an Israeli kebab shop, or as Craig LaBan was to write a few weeks later, “Jerusalem in a bowl.”

• soup
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 cups pink or red lentils, rinsed
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup Caramelized Onions (see recipe)
• 6 cups My Chicken Stock (see recipe)
• 2 smoked turkey wings (optional)
• kofte
• 1 pound ground lamb
• 1 onion, grated
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ⅓ cup club soda
•   Canola oil, for cooking the kofte
• 8 large Napa cabbage leaves

● For the soup: Warm the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the lentils, carrot, garlic, cumin seeds, salt, and caramelized onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrot begins to soften, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken stock and turkey wings, if you like, raise the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, until the lentils have fallen apart and the flavors have thoroughly blended, about 1½ hours. Discard the turkey wings if using. Puree the soup in a blender until smooth, adding up to 1 cup water to thin the soup to the desired consistency.

● For the lamb kofte: Combine the lamb, onion, parsley, salt, sugar, black pepper, cinnamon, garlic, and club soda in a large bowl. Mix gently by hand until well blended. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic onto the surface of the mixture, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

● Working with damp hands, form the mixture into logs about 1 inch in diameter and 3 inches long. Arrange on a plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

● To cook the kofte: Heat ¼ inch oil in a large skillet until shimmering but not smoking. Add the kofte and sauté until nicely brown on all sides but still rare in the middle, about 3 minutes total.

● To wrap and bake the kofte: Preheat the oven to 275°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the cabbage leaves and cook for 2 minutes, until softened. Transfer to a large bowl of ice water to chill, remove, and pat dry. Cut away and discard the tough vein at the bottom of each leaf. Wrap each kofte in a cabbage leaf, burrito style, and arrange in a small baking dish.

● Lightly brush the wrapped kofte with oil and bake until the lamb is just cooked through, about 20 minutes.

● To serve, reheat the soup, ladle it into wide, shallow bowls, then slide in the lamb kofte.