Every year there is a week in November when I stop being interested in food, and this is what I cook then.
It is not a clever dish. It uses one pot, costs almost nothing and tastes better on the second day. I have made it for friends, for neighbours and, most often, for myself at seven o’clock on a dark Wednesday with nothing in the house.
Lentils with lemon and too much garlic
Serves four, or one person for most of a week.
- 250g small brown or green lentils
- 1 large onion, 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon each of cumin and smoked paprika
- 1 litre of stock or salted water
- A big handful of greens, a lemon, good olive oil
- Cook the onion slowly in plenty of oil until it is soft and sweet, at least ten minutes.
- Add the garlic and spices for a minute, then the lentils and stock.
- Simmer for about thirty minutes, until tender but not collapsed.
- Stir in the greens, then the juice of the lemon, and season until it tastes alive.
Things that improve it
- A fried egg on top, runny.
- Yoghurt, if there is any.
- The heel of yesterday’s loaf, toasted hard and rubbed with garlic.
Good weeknight food is the kind you can make while you are still annoyed about something.
Why I keep writing about soup
People sometimes ask why a blog needs this many recipes for what is, in the end, wet beans. I can only say that I have had a lot of Novembers, and that this is what I have found to do about them.
Sample content for The Pixel, a fictional personal blog.
