I tried your recipe, char dal ka dalcha. It’s FANTASTIC!!!

as desired, here’s the recipe for a tunisian chickpea soup which you may want to try. i made it and found it absolutely wonderful and filling. it goes rather well with baguette instead of day-old bread.

Lablabi (Tunisian Chickpea Soup)
Chick peas, day-old bread, lemon juice, and olive oil (and harissa*, Tunisia’s famous hot sauce) are the basic ingredients needed to make Lablabi—a soup in Tunisia.

What you need

two cups dry chick peas (about a pound)
four to six cloves of garlic, minced
one tablespoon harissa* sauce (from can or jar)
one tablespoon cumin
salt, to taste
juice of one lemon
six tablespoons olive oil
a few slices of day-old bread, preferably day-old french bread, broken into small pieces

What you do

Wash chick peas and soak them overnight.
If desired, rinse chick peas. In a large soup pot, cover chick peas with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender (ten to twenty minutes). — Or start with two pounds of canned chick peas, drained and rinsed, and heated in four cups of water.
Add garlic, harissa sauce, ground cumin, and salt. Simmer for ten minutes.
Immediately before serving: add lemon juice, olive oil, and bread crumbs. Serve hot.

Some cooks add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to the water in which the chickpeas soak.

A more traditional method is to start with whole cumin and grind it immediately before preparing the soup.

The soup can also be served by placing portions of bread crumbs in each soup bowl, ladling the soup over the bread, and pouring equal portions of lemon juice and olive oil over the soup. Serve with additional harissa on the side.

A richer lablabi soup can be made by frying the garlic, some chopped red onion, a chopped carrot, and some chopped celery in olive oil, and adding this to the cooked chick peas. Additionally, the chick peas can be cooked in chicken broth or chicken stock.

Lablabi soup goes well with hard-boiled egg or pan-fried fish.

Chick peas (chick-peas or chickpeas) are also called garbanzo beans and ceci. They are common in Mediterranean, Indian, and Middle Eastern cuisine.

* A spicy-hot sauce from Tunisia, harissa sauce (or harissa) is made from hot chiles, garlic, cumin, coriander, caraway and olive oil. Harissa is served with couscous and is also used in soups and stews. Commercially-produced harissa in cans and jars may be obtained at Middle Eastern grocery stores.

website: http://www.congocookbook.com/soup_and_stew_recipes/lablabi.html

Drinking a mug of soup is completely wonderful, especially on a cold clammy day when stuck at one’s desk.

Deana – no worries. But you’re not safe for long so get posting your recipes soon…

Red Lentil Soup

3 tablespoons unsalted butter (I used olive oil and cut down the amt to 2 T)
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
7 cups chicken, lamb or beef stock
1/2 cup bulgur
1/2 cup red lentils
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint

Melt butter in a large pot, add the onions and saute until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the garlic, spices, and salt and pepper, and saute another minute to release the aromas. Stir in the tomato paste to blend with the onions, fry 1 to 2 minutes, then add the stock, bulgur and lentils. Cover and simmer until bulgur and lentils are thoroughly cooked and soup is thickened, about 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat, stir in half of the herbs and sprinkle the remaining half over the soup. Serve immediately with yogurt to garnish (optional).

http://www.zenfoodism.com/index.php/2006/10/10/my-new-favorite-lentil-soup-recipe/

The only change I made was to substitute 1 tsp dried for the 1 Tbsp fresh dill.

http://cookingchat.blogspot.com/2006/11/butternut-chicken-risotto-with-fresh_15.html