Lentils and Eggs
but also a love story
things you’ll need: good stock or bouillon (or salted water), lentils, mirepoix or whatever veggies you have around, herbs, spices, some other greens or veggies, an egg (or two or not), salt and pepper
incidentally gluten-free and vegetarian. Lentils are still really good without eggs for vegan.
this is also what happens to leftovers from this delicious bowl of Lentils and Roasted Veg and Tahini Dressing, which stays on regular rotation
Chapter 155
Remember back when you fell in love with beans and also got an instant pot, maybe for the express purpose of cooking beans because you still didn’t know when things would improve and there hadn’t even been an election (or insurrection) yet, so you were just trying to feed yourself as well as you could on a budget while not having panic attacks?
Well, this isn’t about beans, but it is when you started thinking more about our histories of food and what it was like when resources were not shipped all over the world and you only ate whatever grew near you.
It started to feel like that for a minute, back when stores ran out of the things we all took for granted and you started thinking more about the farmers close to you and what season it was and then adjusted your eating, naturally, around this ancient agreement between fields and kitchens.
Sure, it’s really nice to be able to eat mangos, peaches, and cherries all year round, but nothing compares to a ripe fruit picked in season. Convenience has a cost, both to the larger ecosystem of our world (labor exploitation, ecological damage, sustainability, etc) and the baser pleasure of taste.
You thought a lot about the different things that have been labeled poverty foods and took the time to really dismantle that concept as racist, classist, and xenophobic (to name a few). Lobsters used to be poverty food. Oysters used to be poverty food. Greens and cabbages and beans and mushrooms were all considered low and still are to some. As though a delicacy has any value other than what people attribute to it. As though something desirable could not also be bountiful, hardy, and inexpensive.
When you can trace a food’s popularity back to 11,000 BC, you know that it must be some good shit. When you look at how many different cultures have their own relationship with an ingredient, you marvel at the evolution, the millennia of fire pits, hearths, and ovens that developed and deepened the potential flavors and methods in preparing one single food.
Maybe this is all just to say that you can make lentils however you want using whatever type of lentil that you have. Start with a simple mirepoix and good stock/broth made from the ends of things you used to treat as waste, but now simmer down for hours to celebrate the way that time and heat turn remnants into rich flavor.
If you don’t have extra veggies for mirepoix, it’s fine. If you don’t have the time or resources to make your own stock, it’s fine. Rest on salt, spices, and herbs like people always have. Simmer with thyme and pepper, cumin and paprika, turmeric and ginger, handfuls of garlic, or whatever you keep in your cabinets.
Sauté some greens, brown some mushrooms, or roast some cabbage. Pick a vegetable, any vegetable, even leftovers from some other meal.
Then, cook an egg (unless you don’t eat eggs). Scrambled, fried, or sunny side. If you are one of those people who gets goosebumps every time you split a yolk and watch the runny gold dribble, then definitely put an egg on it. Take your time to get it right even if you have to do it twice.
It’s simple. It’s just a 13,000ish-year-old grain, a legume really, simmered in liquid and made into something delicious. It’s radical in its own way, its wholeness, its perseverance, the way it has fed the hungry for so long, the way it fills the bowl again and again, meal after meal. Take the time to love the way you love food, even when… especially when it’s as simple as a noble lentil and a runny yolk.
As always, thank you for subscribing!
If you’d like to support this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, liking, sharing, forwarding, or otherwise spreading the word about this project.
I keep going because you keep reading 💚 🍽 💚
Leave us a comment or drop us a line at eatwellenough@gmail.com.