The lowly lentil

I hit the wrong button when I first started this post, and the darned thing published itself--without any content! I will continue trying to gather my thoughts and get this article written, but who knows how it's gonna post again. I sure don't.

What I intended to write about--The Lentil--was actually just a riff on a soup that I made a few weeks ago for Mama and The Girls (in this instance, Little Sister and Big Kid Cousin). I had tossed a few items together with a bunch of sausage and then added some lentils, which became the big focus of our discussion of what we were eating. For some of them, adding lentils was introducing a whole new food to their diet.

Lentils were certainly not something that I had while growing up. I don't recall anyone in our greater family circle mentioning cooking them. I don't think I had one until maybe 10 years ago, unless, of course, I ate them while in Africa (which was so long ago I have probably forgotten).

Indeed my acquaintance with lentils seems to derive from the search for new tastes and healthier eating, not from any family foodways. While I had heard of lentils most of my life, they were in the context of Bible stories and some vague idea that this was food for "poor people" or "foreigners."

Imagine my surprise to discover a high protein, low carb vegetable that can be cooked into a variety of dishes. Imagine how happy I am that it's a legume that doesn't take as long as most dried beans to cook. Lentils are also fairly inexpensive to buy and easy to store, so they make a good addition to the basic staples that should be stocked in the pantry.

Happily, my lentil stew was a hit with Mama and The Girls, so much so that instead of sending some of the leftovers home with Little Sister, I ended up freezing a container of the stew. I pulled it out yesterday and served it with some cornbread for Mama's lunch. Sometimes, Mama is a tad reluctant to eat leftovers. She saves them, of course, but she often doesn't want a "do over" on yesterday's lunch or dinner. That was one reason for freezing part of the leftovers--so there would be some time between the meals when the stew was served. It worked--the stew was a hit once more. Too bad it was Mystery Lentil Stew, cuz I have no idea how to make it again. *sigh*