As a part time vegetarian, my diet consists of a lot of beans and lentils. I have a signature lentil soup that I used to make and put in neat portions in the freezer, just to take with me as lunch to the university. I ate it so often that Elin even asked for the recipe and made it a few times herself. So when we started discussing food on the drive from Edmonton to Jasper, I thought I could introduce some veggie cooking to the girls. I should have known better.
During the excursion part of the Namibia field trip in 2010 (a part of the third term of the geography programme), we divided ourselves into cooking teams for the making of dinner. On the night that we spent on the camping ground by Fish River Canyon, a group of girls were cooking lentil soup. They started cooking sometime around six and we were expecting dinner at seven or so – but the lentils just wouldn’t cook. It got darker and all the geography students got hungrier and tireder, but the lentils just wouldn’t become soft. Finally, at ten, the girls decided to give up and started serving. The soup was delicious (maybe partly due to the excellent spice of hunger) but still a little al dente.
That little dinner incident should have taught me that Swedish lentils are special, fast to cook and easy to serve. But no, I had to go and do the same mistake myself.
Firstly, they didn’t have red lentils at the superstore, only green. Right there I should have turned away and tried to come up with something else to eat. But we were so tired and just wanted to get going, so I bought the lentils and thougt that I’ll just have to cook them a little bit longer.
Secondly, one shouldn’t plan to cook someting that takes long to make after a day in the slopes, because that is just building up to a disaster. I was dropped off by the hostel and started cooking the lentils while the others went to return our skis and snowboards, and still they had time to take a shower and sit with their computers in the commonroom answering e-mails that they hadn’t had time for during the week, before I even could add the potatoes and carrots and onions to the soup. I saw other hostel guests start making their dinner, eating it and wash their dishes, while my lentils just kept on boiling.
When I finally decided that the soup was done, it had turned a brownish color and really, looked like something that could have been served in a Swedish school kitchen. Not at all tasty, that is. To eat, it was okay though, and the others complimented my cooking – but I’m quite certain that I won’t be known as the master chef among Frida’s Canadian friends. I’ll have to show off some of my other talents, just to make a positive impression. Maybe I could knit them all socks?
Katja Malmborg 
Ibland måste man nog göra felet själv för att lära sig. Tyvärr. Jag sitter och läser Murdoch och ANT. Det är intressant men ger också en hel del ångest! Jag är så glad att vi skrev tillsammans i Namibia. Att skriva själv är väldigt ensamt.
Jag kan iaf intyga att din linssoppa är grym i vanliga fall och att vi äter den med jämna mellanrum här hemma! C köpte till och med hem nya röda linser för att kunna fixa mer =)
Härligt! Och du, tänk inte på att du skriver själv, min erfarenhet är att om man tänker på att man är ensam så ökar ensamheten exponentiellt och så blir allting plötsligt mycket jobbigare. Tänk istället: Vad spännande!, och så kommer det att gå hur bra som helst. För du kan ju. Det vet vi båda två.