• We’re going to make our own ancho chili powder. Preheat a small frying pan over low-medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and ancho chili pieces and toast, stirring often, until fragrant and toasted, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Transfer to a spice grinder (I use a clean coffee grinder) or small food processor and grind to a coarse powder. Some bigger pieces of chili are okay. Add the coriander seeds to the cumin and anchos and pulse a few times to crush them, you don’t want them ground to a powder, just broken up pretty well.
• Preheat a big stock pot over medium heat. Saute the onions in the olive oil until transparent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the serrano and garlic and cook for another minute. Add the spices and stir. Add the bay leaves, salt, lentils and 7 cups of water. Mix well. Bring up the heat, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling lower heat to low-medium and let simmer until lentils are completely tender, anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour depending on the lentils.
• When just about ready to serve, heat up your grill pan on high heat or preheat a broiler. Spray your grill pan with cooking spray and grill the pineapple slices for 4 minutes on each side, or until grill lines appear. If using a broiler, cook on one side for 3 minutes and the other for about 2, until pineapple begins to brown and slightly caramelize.
• Once the lentils are tender, add lime juice. Thin with a little extra broth if necessary.
• Remove the bay leaf. If you like, use an immersion blender to puree about half the soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a potato masher to mash it up a bit, until desired thickness is achieved. You can skip this step if the lentils have cooked enough to thicken. Taste for salt and seasoning.

To serve:

• Ladle into bowls and top with a pineapple ring, a slice of lime and dot with hot sauce.