The Dinner Files

I made this lentil soup from a vague memory of a lentil soup I used to make in college all the time. Whatever cookbook I got the recipe from has long since disappeared. You can use fancier green or puy lentils, but this soup makes fine use of the humble, cheap brown lentil. Make a pot, freeze the extras, save some bucks because there is nothing cheaper to make than a pot of lentil soup.

Slightly Spicy Lentil Soup

I used to eat this soup with cottage cheese, an idea I got from Jarra’s, an Ethiopian restaurant in Portland I went to weekly in college that served cottage cheese with its spicy lentil dishes. Now I serve it with a drizzle of fruity olive oil-garlic-parsley-lemon zest mixture. I can’t help but wonder what I’ll be serving it with in the 2030s….

6 Tablespoons olive oil (divided)

2 onions, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

7 cloves garlic, minced (divided)

1 small hot chile, minced (add more chiles for a spicier soup, but I didn’t need to tell youheat freaks that, did I?)

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cinamon

1/4 tsp. cayenne

3 cups brown lentils

5 thin slices ginger

Salt to taste

3 Tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium high heat in a soup pot. Add onion, celery, and carrot. Cook, stirring, until onions are soft, abotu 3 minutes. Add 4 cloves worth of the garlic and the chile and cook, stirring, until very fragrant, about a minute.

Add cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cayenne. Cook, stirring, about a minute.

Add lentils, ginger, and 8 cups water. Bring to a boil, partially cover, reduce heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until lentils are very soft and starting to fall apart. How long will this take? That depends on your lentils and how dried out and potentially old they are – anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes. When lentils are done add salt to taste (I used about a tablespoon) and more water for a thinner soup, if you like.

Meanwhile, combine remaining garlic, remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, parsley, and lemon zest. Add salt to taste and let sit at room temperature until you’re ready to eat. Swirl some into each serving of lentil soup.

Note: For a creamy soup and more dishes to do, go ahead and whirl the whole thing (in batches) in a blender.

We had a head of cabbage burning a hole in our fridge. My dashing husband is a huge fan of this butter-braised cabbage I make, but I wanted something with just the tiniest bit something more going on. So I popped a few mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds in a bit of grapeseed oil before pouring 1/2 cup of water to cool down the pan, melting the butter in that, and then braising the cabbage. Everyone was happy. Even Ernest, who ate a pile of shredded raw cabbage before I got a chance to get it all in the pot.

With the cabbage I cooked up a family favorite – brown butter dal – and some black “forbidden” rice that had been burning a hole in our cupboard, thus continuing Project Eat That Rice.

Who had time to cook? I had presidential debates to watch. Well, just the one last night, but you know what I mean. I’d been slaving all day on a last minute story for The Man. The Man, however, was in a better place, thank god, so the whole thing went more like this:

The Man: We’d love you to do this story that you are uniquely qualified to write, would you do that for us in exchange for this small pile of cash?

Me: Why yes, I would, thank you for thinking of me.

[time passes]

The Man: This is great, thanks so much!

Me: You are very welcome.

I have to say, that’s about the level of drama I’m willing to deal with in professional relationships. Does it make good reading? No, not really. But I like how it doesn’t drive me insane and allows me to focus energies elsewhere, like into giant-ass needlepoint projects.

So anyway… back to dinner. It was a night of full-on freezer adoration. I went down to the freezer in the basement, rifling through the containers and bags, and pulled out some lemony lentils and spicy beef stew from an Ethiopian Feast I made in July. With an arugula salad (leaves from the farm box) and some sliced cucumber salad, we were all set. Oh yeah, plus the leftover butternut squash from the night before. Serious scrounging, yes. In a way it was a meal that was just working through what was in the house. In another way it was a tasty, nutritious dinner.

BTW, the cucumbers were “inspired” by this little number created by Jess over at Hogwash. Except I really didn’t have any of the key ingredients except the cucumbers. But still, I sliced them as thin as possible on a mandoline, which was step 1 of her recipe. Some day when champagne vinegar and chives grace my cupboards I will make that salad. Last night I just tossed them with a bit of oil and rice vinegar and plenty of salt. Boring but tasty. And cooling next to the stew.

I’ve been making the same dal for years. Seriously. Since college. That’s years. And then last night I was distracted and let the butter brown. Oh well. I was making it to round out leftovers, so I wasn’t going to waste good butter and just went ahead with the recipe.

I struck gold while mindlessly digging for dirt.

Brown Butter Dal

I serve this with lots of things, but it commonly shows up with rice and some quickly cooked greens as a pretty easy, quick, and highly nutritious meal when I’m not up for much cooking. 

1 cup chana dal or yellow split peas

4 cups water

5 thick slices ginger

1/2 tsp. turmeric

1/2 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. butter

1 to 2 tsp. cumin seeds

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 hot chile, thinly sliced or 1/4 tsp. cayenne (optional–seriously, sometimes you want something spicy and sometimes you don’t–this dal is good both ways)

1. Put legumes, water, ginger, tumeric, and salt in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to maintain a low but steady simmer. Put a lid on a bit askew and cook until legumes are tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Add up to another cup of water during cooking if the beans start to look dry. This dal is very flexible–you can add more water to make a soupy dal or cook off any extra liquid at the end to make a drier dal that can be eaten with a fork.  
2. Melt butter in a small frying pan over medium heat. Cook, swirling butter a bit to help it brown evenly, until butter turns light brown. Add cumin seeds and cook until they start to turn color, about 30 seconds. Add garlic and chile, if you’re using it, and cook about 1 minute.
3. Stir brown butter and its many flavors into the dal. Fish out the ginger slices and serve hot or warm.

Having cooked food enough for 10 Saturday night, we ate the exact same thing last night….

But I realize that I never told you how to make the lentils. Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a medium pot over medium-high heat.  Add 4 cloves minced garlic and 1 Tbsp. freshly and finely grated ginger. Stir to combine. Add 2 cups yellow lentils/yellow split peas/chana dal (your choice!) and stir to coat. Add 4 cups water and 1/2 tsp. salt (don’t worry, none of these legumes still have their skins on them that would toughen because of the salt). Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until tender but not falling apart, anywhere form 20 to 60 minutes–depends on how old and what variety of legume you use. Stir in another 1 Tbsp. freshly and finely grated ginger, the finely grated zest of 1 lemon, and the juice of the same lemon. Add salt to taste, of course. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro is you have some hanging around the house causing trouble.