Spice Smuggler Lentil Soup

When my friends travel, they often bring me back gifts (nice people, my friends). Because they know that I love to cook, these gifts often take the form of chocolate, herbs, or spices. Recently, I came into possession of some curry powder from Singapore, and some unlabeled 'Ottoman pepper' from an Istanbul market. I used both of these in my version of Heidi Swanson's lentil soup from Super Natural Every Day. She uses green lentils or split peas, my version went with red lentils, but the finished version, augmented with coconut milk, and curry-infused butter, was rich and creamy, and still oddly green.

The soup recipe can be found here, and it's only one of many excellent recipes and ideas in the book. I think of this as the soup smuggled from afar. Not that my other spices came from any place any nearer, but it's the principle of the thing.