"My" Lentil Soup

Most every cook has a lentil soup to call her own. All of my recipe books have at least one recipe for lentil soup, if not two or more. I don't really have my "own" recipe, and I kinda want one. What I think I have is a method that I use each time, which is to use whatever vegetables I have around and every spice I like without abandon, and I have been using this method every since my first vegan thanksgiving potluck ten years ago (that's november 1997 for those doing the calculations. I hate math, too). Not many people ate that soup, and I took a ton home, reason being that hardly anyone had a bowl to eat it with. You know, I think Joanna just wrote something about potlucks that mentioned this very fact. Well, that was the day that I learned that one.

So, my favorite herbs and spices for lentil soup are black cardamom (big top fave), cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika, and now that I'm not looking at my spice rack I'm forgetting stuff, but you see the idea, though not really, cause I think I use way more than that. Oh, and some curry powder, but it's gotta be the really good, fresh kind from an Indian store, otherwise don't bother.

Somehow I decided to add a little soymilk to it at the end (not my idea -- I think it was Madhur Jaffrey's, though she adds cream to hers but when I read "cream" I sub "soy milk" in my mind right away), and that was not quite where I was going with it, so this lentil soup still isn't quite "my" lentil soup, either, but it had just the right lovely spice confusion that is my signature lentil soup method. It was tasty.

p.s. I do not add tomatoes.