Curried Eggplant-Lentil Soup

I know I (Emily) just posted, but I have to get this online quickly before I forget how I made it. Anyway, the day before departing for my spring break travels, I realized that I had an eggplant. Now, this is never a bad thing. I love eggplant and rank it among my at least top three favorite vegetables. However, since I was about to leave for over a week, I didn't trust the eggplant's chances of survival. Eggplant pasta and stuffed eggplant are always nice, but I was in a soupy mood so I decided to experiment. The surprisingly delicious results follow.

Curried Eggplant-Lentil Soup

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant, diced, salted, and roasted, with olive oil, salt, and pepper, for 10 minutes at 500°F. (For further instruction on how to do all that, look at this.)
• 2 c. dry lentils
  
• 5-7 cups water, broth, or a mixture
• 2 tsp. hot curry powder-- (if you don't have this, add regular curry powder plus cayenne or another pepper)
  
• dash canola or olive oil
  
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, sliced (we had half a pepper. If you have a whole one, put it in)
  
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced or minced
• 1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
  
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, plus powder for later
• 3 TBS sesame seeds
• handful fresh spinach, chopped
• dash lemon juice
• ground pepper and feta cheese (optional) to serve
  

Procedure

• Boil the lentils for about 20 minutes in water and/or broth.
• Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute the cumin seed, sesame seed, salt, and onion. Add the carrot a few minutes later, then stir in the pepper, garlic and hot curry powder. Saute until the onions are translucent and the veggies are beginning to soften.
  
• Pour the vegetable mixture into the lentil mixture, adding the rest of the stock/broth.
• Allow to simmer for at least half an hour, until the veggies and lentils are soft. Add the spinach, roasted eggplant, and lemon juice about twenty-five minutes in.
  
• Adjust spice as needed, ladle, and serve--preferably with some homemade bread.