Super-easy Campbell's Tomato Soup Indian food

Okay so yeah its been about a month since I last posted. Please forgive. It's been quite a month, super busy and all but with a lot of exciting stuff happening. Plus, not so much homesickness (though I do go home next week! and am so looking forward to that) and quite a number of new friends and important connections.

Anyway, so right now I am sitting at my desk in Lab 408A (did I mention before that I had a desk in Takesh and Dani's lab? If not, remind to do so in the update post, coming soon!) I just heated up my lunch, which is a quick dish I made last night. The background story is that I spent most of the day pondering what I was going to make--while I did have two dishes already planned out for the week to cook, I was missing some ingredients and didn't feel up to making them.

Figuring that since I had rice, cheese, and numerous cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup I could make some sort of dish with that, maybe even a baked thing with breadcrumbs on top. Not having any regular, long-grain rice I was going to use Jasmine rice, but wasn't sure how it would turn out after baking in an oven. Plus, the dish just didn't sound exciting. Then I thought, why not use Basamti? That should stand up well. And then, it hit me. I should just do an Indian style dish using curry powder and other such stuff that I have in my kitchen. And voila! A super easy Indian dish was born--adding lentils was a final stroke of genius.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients-- (makes a lot) 3 cans Campbell's Tomato Soup; 1 medium-to-large onion; several garlic cloves, according to taste; 3 green onions; 2 cups red lentils; turmeric powder, cumin powder, and Madras curry powder; salt; vegetable oil; Basmati rice

1. Chop onions and garlic finely
2. Slice green onion
3. Heat vegetable oil in pan using desired amount
4. Once oil is hot, add in onions and garlic and cook for 5-7 minutes
5. Add in green onion, 3-5 more minutes (when onion starts to get really clear)
6. Add turmeric, cumin and curry powder, according to taste
7. Add more vegetable oil if necessary (you want it to be a little oily)
8. Meanwhile, soak rice and lentils (rice takes longer to soak so you may want to do that sooner)
9. Cook rice and lentils when they are ready
10. To onion/spice mix, add the three cans of soup and equal parts water, according to directions
11. Let soup simmer and flavors meld together
12. Add salt and additional curry powder if desired (I put in a ton)
13. Once lentils are ready, add them and let cook for at least 7-10 mins
14. Serve over basmati rice w/ garlic pickle paste

This dish was super easy, and with the soak times it still only took about an hour to make. The nice thing too, is that you can play around with some of the ingredients. In fact, the next time I make this I will probably add okra, since I love it so much.

Welp, that's the super tasty dish I made last night. Updates on what's been happening to me in the past month to come soon (today I hope!)