Work in Progress

One of my favorite recipes from one of my favorite cookbooks is a lentil salad courtesy of The Metropolitan Bakery Cookbook, which was a gift from my dear friend M. many years ago. It’s not very complicated, but the flavors just come together perfectly–lentils cooked with turmeric, a bay leaf, & a cinnamon stick, tossed with a thyme-and-dijon vinaigrette and some diced & sauteed carrots and onions. 

This is how my brain works: 

As I was thinking of what to do with the mizuna & mustard greens I received this week, I remembered a bag of lentils I’d just bought, and wondered how those flavors would go together. And, hey, dijon mustard and mustard greens aren’t too far off from each other, are they? What if I adapt that salad somehow?

So I chopped up the mizuna & mustard greens together and put them in a pot with a little water & salt. Meanwhile the lentils are simmering like the original recipe, with a bay leaf, a cinnamon stick, and about a quarter teaspoon of turmeric.

 

Mustard greens, you should remember, cook down a lot, even if you just simmer them for a few minutes. This was two pretty generous bunches, which I drained, and tossed with some chopped garlic scapes, fresh thyme, coconut vinegar and coconut oil. (The coconut addition was inspired by the sweet potato/mustard green stew I made & loved so much.)

 

Then I tossed everything together, adjusted the salt & vinegar levels a little, and called it dinner. To my palate, the astringency of mustard greens needs something that can sort of flatten them out, bring them down to earth. Coconut milk does this very well, and so would eggs, I think. Lentils aren’t a bad choice, either. 

 

I’m not posting an actual recipe of this, because I’m not sure about it yet. The flavor combination is pretty good, but I think it’s too heavy, in a way, to be a main dish. A big bowl of it is just too rich, but maybe if it were served over rice? Or tossed with bulgur? Or use a softer lentil (one that breaks down more easily, like red or probably green) and shove it into a pita? I don’t know. But I’m getting mizuna & mustard greens again this week, so maybe I’ll try another variation and see how it goes. And if anyone’s got a suggestion, please comment.

No More Midtown Lunches

I spent 5 years of my adult life working in Rockefeller Center, home to one of Dean & Deluca‘s cafés, which in turn is home to the best lentil soup I’ve ever had. I do not lament that my current commute does not involve pushing through hordes of tourists taking pictures of themselves outside the Today Show studio, or massing together in a claustrophobic crush to look at the ever popular Christmas tree. But there are days–damp, grey, dreary February days–where, boy, do I really miss that soup. 

It was with that in mind that I set about making this un-photogenic dinner. I had bought a bag of masoor lentils at Kalustyan’s recently, which I figured was reason enough to attempt my recreation. Admittedly, it has been a few years since I last had D&D’s particular version, but I assumed that, having eaten it, by my estimate, once a week for five years, I ought to be an expert. Right?

Start, as all good recipes do, with butter and olive oil in a pot. 

When the butter is melted, add thinly sliced carrots and onions (and celery, if you (a) like that sort of thing and (b) have any in the fridge, which I (a) sometimes do and (b) did not this night). Stir them up to coat in the butter & oil, then stick a lid on the pot while you get everything else ready.

After a few minutes, the veggies should be soft but not browned. At this point, stir in some tomato paste, minced garlic, and a bay leaf. 

Cook this for a minute, and then add a cup of rinsed lentils, dried summer savory (the Greatest Herb Ever), coriander, and water or stock. Brown or green lentils would probably be best for this. Don’t use red lentils, because they fall apart too quickly, or Puy lentils, because they don’t fall apart at all.

Bring it to a simmer, and then cook for about 45 minutes, or as long as it takes for the lentils to get thoroughly soft.

Then puree them with your trusty stick blender–or run some of it through a regular blender. You don’t want it to be completely smooth, just thickened. Some of the lentils and carrots should be whole to give the soup a good texture. I like mine very thick–sort of sludgy, for lack of a more appetizing word. Taste for salt, and finish it off with a splash of sherry vinegar.

So no, not the prettiest soup you’ll ever eat (though truthfully, soup is rarely pretty). And not, in the end, a replica of the D&D variety. But a pretty damn good dinner, if I do say so myself. And even better with a piece of good bread on the side.

Lentil Soup
makes 5+ cups

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
2 carrots
1 large or 2 small yellow onions
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 Tbsp dried summer savory (or 1 tsp dried thyme)
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1 cup lentils
5 cups water/stock/broth
1-2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
salt to taste

Trim & peel the carrots and onions, then thinly slice them. 
Put a soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the butter and olive oil. When the butter has melted, toss in the onions and carrots. Stir to coat all the vegetables, then put a lid on the pot. 
While the carrots & onions are cooking, mince the garlic cloves, get the other seasonings ready, and measure out and rinse the lentils.
Remove the lid–the vegetables should be soft and going a little translucent, but not browned. Add the tomato paste, garlic, and bay leaf. Stir, and let cook for another minute. 
Add the lentils, summer savory, coriander, and water. Raise the heat, bring the soup to a boil, and then lower again. Let the soup simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are very soft. 
Remove the bay leaf and roughly puree with a stick blender until you reach the desired consistency. Alternately, puree batches in a regular blender. Season with salt to taste, and stir in the vinegar. 

Degrees of Separation

I love it when I stumble across recipes that require just exactly what I have in my fridge. This Persian saffron-spiced stew is not technically one of those, but it’s pretty damn close. 

Eats Well with Others is a blog by another member of my CSA. She is in the big leagues as far as food blogging goes. She writes guest posts on Marcus Samuelsson’s website. Her superior photography skills have gotten her past the velvet ropes of Tastespotting. And I’m pretty sure people who are not related to her read her blog. But most importantly to me, she writes about the food she makes using exactly the same things as are in my own fridge. In this case, the recipe was already a meatless adaptation of a recipe from Healthy Cooking for the Jewish Home: 200 Recipes for Eating Well on Holidays and Every Day, which had been written up on a couple of OTHER food blogs. Already several degrees removed from the original, I’ve altered it again by skipping the pasta & swapping lentils for the split peas (because I didn’t have any split peas), which I cooked very simply, just adding a little salt at the end.

Then onto the veggies. The onion gets sauteed in a little olive oil, and then in goes the chopped spinach right on top. 

Once it’s wilted, add the diced eggplant and bell peppers, plus salt & pepper. 

Once the eggplant is starting to get soft, add chopped tomatoes, cinnamon, and saffron. Go easy on the saffron, and not just because it’s wicked expensive–the flavor can easily overpower whatever else is in a dish, taking it from delicate to metallic before you know it.

Then mix in tomato paste that’s been diluted in hot water, and the lentils (drained). Squeeze some lemon juice on top and serve in soup bowls, drizzle on a little good olive oil, and eat with some bread. Ideally a focaccia that’s got some goat cheese on it or something, just so you don’t find yourself accidentally eating another vegan meal.

As noted in the original recipe, this would probably be great with pasta, too, but I liked it just as a summer stew. Filling, but not heavy at all.