Recipe error or am I becoming a chilli wuss?

Surely it couldn't be the latter!!! Spicy foods full of chilli have always whetted my appetite although I have been toning it down a bit recently for the sake of others...

I had no intention of writing up a post when I set out to make this Red Lentil Thai Chilli soup from Isa's blog. The recipe stated that it made quite a large volume so I decided to make a half batch as a trial. As I was working out quantities the chilli powder seemed like it was way too much so I decided to halve it and use 2 teaspoons instead of 1 tablespoon. After an initial taste test the soup was still extremely spicy, it was edible for me but I wasn't confident about how it would fare with the others.

What do you think based on the original full recipe? Would you add 2 tablespoons of chilli powder to a soup that only contains 1 litre of stock, 800g of tinned tomatoes and 400ml of coconut milk? Not to mention there are already 2 tablespoons of Thai red curry paste as an additional spicy ingredient. My theory is that tablespoons may have been a typo for teaspoons, although after reading through the comments no-one else seemed to have an issue. Perhaps the chilli powder I purchased from a local Indian spice shop has a lot more heat than the powders available in the US...

The Melbourne weather being so interchangeable has been a fantastic excuse to start the soup season early this year. It's great to have a pot of soup ready for lunch days when there are no left-overs around. I must try this soup again with less chilli (will try 1 teaspoon for a half batch) as the other ingredients (especially a squeeze of lime juice at the end) make it an extremely flavoursome hearty meal.

Black Beans & Quinoa with Chipotle Raspberry Sauce

OK, this photo quality is pretty crappy (not that mine are ever great) and does not do the meal justice at all, however I still wanted to post this as it's such an unusual combination of ingredients and really must be tried to be believed.... I wanted to give this a go the moment it appeared in my RSS feeds!

The funny thing is when raspberries were spotted on the bench tonight, hubby and son had an immediate mindset that they weren't going to like their dinner and also tried to sneak a bite before it was served up with the sauce and toasted almonds. They were proved wrong pretty quickly when they tasted the finished result! I tried to explain that Isa really knows her stuff...

This was made as per the recipe in Isa's blog, no modifications at all. If you like the sound of it you should definitely try this too, it's a nice quick dinner with a difference!