Soup as a food of comfort - onion and red lentil crème for a depleted brain

Soup. How obvious. Still, it has been a while since I last psted a soup recipe. I always say that soup is a staple of comfort food, at least for me. Soup comforts me, the body, the mind, the soul. Whenever I'm tired or feeling depleted, soup does the trick. I like those creamy, thick soups the best. With no pieces swimming around. Crème of something - anything! - is always my go to. If I really need a pick me up, I mean. And I always do. That's why there's always potato in my soups. Also because I love potatoes so much.

I've been needing some sort of pick me up, lately. An emotional pick me up, as well as a physical one. It's a weird sort of thing, actually. Writing is depleting. It's like you pour chuncks of yourself you didn't even know were there into the paper. You send it out there, and it depletes you. It drains you. Two days ago I finished revising and editing my upcoming novel. It's done. It's ready for publishing, minus one last proof read. It was an exhausting work, revising that book. It was even more exhausting editing it. Some days it felt like I was ripping parts of me out of my own self.

I thought I was going to feel drained and depleted, and emotionally blank. I thought it was gonna take me a while to get back into writing - because editing and revising always does this to me! - and I was actually bracing myself for the huge task of editing the enormous amount of photos I have on old, and preparing posts for the blog. But then yesterday, as I sat down to edit these pics, my brain was elsewhere. My brain was revolving around a chapter I needed to write. A new chapter, for the second volume of the trilogy. I had to stop everything and write it down.

It came out quite well, as a matter of fact. I was happy with the result, mainly because it focused on a looooong dialogue, and I suck at dialogues. But it ran smoothly, my fingers doing their job, my brain in a sort of trance where I wasn't even aware of the music playing in the back - my new musical passions, Myrkur and Darkher - not like I am today, listening to Eliwagar and being transported into some sort of viking dream. I wrote down that chapter and when I was through, I re-read it, edited and revised it. I was quite satisfied, and eager for today so I could sit down writing again. Alas! I woke up with my mind a blank, and feeling drained of words and ideas and stories to tell. I woke up in need of soup. So here's a soup!

It's an onion and red lentil soup, quite simple but filling and warming.

• four large potatoes
• four medium onions
• one medium carrot
• one courgette
• one chayote (chuchu, mirliton)
• half a cup of red lentils
• 1 litre water + 250 ml stock - I used chicken stock, highly concentrate
• salt

Wash, peel and dice all the vegetables. Place them in a large pan and cover with the stock and the water. Bring to a boil, over a high heat. Add the lentils and the salt, lowering the heat. Cover with a lid and let it cook until all the veggies are tender. Bring out of the heat and blend with a handblender, until all the vegetables are reduced to pulp. It shouldn't be too thick, but creamy and silky looking. Serve as an entrée for your meal, or as a meal in itself!