Hearty Potato Soup with Leeks, Garlic and Fresh Parsley

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure ’tis like a morn in spring.

In the lilt of Irish laughter, you can hear the angels sing.

When Irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay,

And When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, sure, they steal your heart away.

John drops garlic in our CSA box regularly, so this soup contains an entire bulb, with the knowledge that cooking turns raw garlic’s sharp bite into gentle, mild flavor. This is hardneck garlic we’re talking about, Ranui Garden’s specialty, finest quality.

This recipe was born because our fridge was holding leeks and yet more parsley. I used a combination of Yukon Golds and the reds we got a few weeks ago. Robbie cleaned them and trimmed the eyes before cutting the potatoes into chunks. The benefit? We know about the vitamins contained in potato skin, and here I learned that cooked skins resist blender blades and add pleasing texture. For supper, we enjoyed an egg, over easy on top of each bowlful of soup!

This week we’re getting some more purple potatoes, but I don’t recommend the use of purple majesty potatoes in this soup—who knows what color you’d have with purple and green competing for the brightest hue in the blend. Better to go to the root cellar, or in our case in a basket in the cupboard, where I’ve been stashing the less daring various weekly potatoes.

My Dad was full-blood Irish. I am pretty sure this soup would have made his eyes smile and steal his heart.

 Hearty Potato Soup with Leeks, Garlic and Fresh Parsley

3 leeks

1 whole bulb garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 medium potatoes, well scrubbed and trimmed of blemishes

6 cups vegetable broth

½ cup lightly packed parsley leaves

Eggs, cooked over easy, optional

Trim the root and all but one inch of the green from the leeks. Cut them in half lengthwise, and wash out any lingering dirt. Slice the leeks thinly, about 1/8-inch thick.

Separate the cloves of garlic. Hit each with the side of a knife, just enough to smash a wee bit, so the paper is easily removed. Mince or press through a garlic press.

Cut the potatoes in chunks, about ¾ -inch.

Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker or soup pot. Add the leeks and sauté on medium flame about 5 minutes. Add the garlic; cook and stir a few more minutes.

Pour the vegetable broth over the garlic and leeks. Add the potatoes and parsley.

For pressure cooking, bring to pressure and cook 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the pressure to come down naturally for another 5 minutes. Then release the remaining pressure by running under cold water.

Without a pressure cooker, cover the soup and cook at least ½ hour, until the potatoes are very soft.

Puree with an immersion blender or carefully in batches in the blender. (Beware hot liquids in a blender have the urge to get out and burn the nearest victim, so only fill the blender half full each batch.) Return the blended soup to a pot.

Serve hot, garnished with parsley. Float an egg, fried over easy, in each bowl of soup, if desired.

Makes about 6 servings.

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Leek and Navy Bean Soup

You would imagine bean soup to be earthy and casual, like the one flavored with ham hocks my mother used to make. One meal we’d have baked ham; a couple of days later we’d have a bean soup, seasoned with the ham bone and chunky with meat she’d shaved from the bone.

Today, from the other room, as the leeks and onions sweat their essence into olive oil, Robbie called out that he could smell ham. He was joking of course, he’d seen the beans soaking overnight and he also has memories of his mother’s ham and bean soup.

But we’re following a plant-based diet here, so there is no ham and oh my, this soup is much more delicate than any old bean soup. You could serve it as a first course and your guests would declare it elegant and refined, worthy of a white linen restaurant.

Mild and subtle leeks are the answer, with white miso and kombu seaweed as undercover umami. The beans just about disintegrate in the broth and someone might even mistake them for potatoes.

Navy beans are the small white ones, the same ones that go in Boston baked beans. Add delicate leeks and a few mystery items and you’ve created a ladies and gentlemen soup that can be on the table in 30 minutes when cooked in a pressure cooker, and you’ve soak the beans beforehand.

I’ve had this thyme in the fridge for a week, stored in water, covered with a plastic bag. Doesn’t it look fresh?

Leek and Navy Bean Soup

1 cup dried navy beans

2 strips kombu seaweed

3 large leeks (or 4 smaller ones), washed and trimmed

1 onion, diced

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups vegetable broth

1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme leaves, optional

1 tablespoon white miso

Chopped chives

Rinse the beans, place them in a bowl covered with water. Soak all day or overnight.

Drain and place in a pressure cooker (or soup pot.) Add 4 cups of water, the kombu and the  bay leaves. Bring to pressure in the pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes, or simmer in the soup pot until the beans are very, very soft. Release the pressure naturally: Let the gauge come down on its own, which will take almost 15 minutes more.

While the beans cook, slice the leeks in half and chop thinly.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-low flame. Cook the leeks and onions, stirring occasionally, until they are translucent and tender, about 15 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves and large pieces of kombu from the soft beans. Stir in the leeks and onions, the vegetable stock and the thyme, if using. Mash everything with a potato masher until you really can’t tell there are cooked beans.

Dissolve the miso in a separate bowl, in about ½ cup of the soup; then add back to the pot. Reheat a few minutes but do not let the soup boil. (Digestive enzymes in the miso are lost when boiled.)

Serve immediately, garnished with chives.

Makes about 6 cups, 4 to 6 servings.

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Red Velvet Beet Soup

~May I be filled with loving-kindness. ~May I be well. ~May I be peaceful and at ease. ~May I be happy.

This is a 2,500 year old meditation, used to cultivate that which is naturally in us, a heart of kindness and love. Repeat again and again, allowing the feelings to permeate your body and mind.

I learned this meditation at a retreat center, The Last Resort, in Duck Creek, in the mountains high above Cedar City, Utah. My teacher has the name Pujari, an East Indian name for priest. His wife and partner is Abhilasha, her Sanskrit name means desire or aspiration.

Abhilasha cooks vegetarian like no other. I am always grateful that she once made this soup for us, we seekers of peace, ease and loving kindness.

Meals at The Last Resort were always silent–no chatter, no exclaiming how good the food is. As if the meal wasn’t incredible in the first place, silence seemed to enhance every flavor and texture in your mouth.

On one retreat, Red Velvet Soup was our first supper, a nurturing repast of welcome to soothe us at the end of our travel day.

Imagine sitting down at the communal table to a bowl of steaming red soup. It is strikingly bright and you have no idea what it is or how it might taste. Your first spoonful is mind-blowing, scarlet and velvet. Since you are honoring silence, you really have no idea of what you are sipping. You savor every nuance knowing you will eventually get the recipe from Abhilasha.

The original source is a cookbook by Mary Estella, Natural Foods Cookbook: Vegetarian Dairy-Free Cuisine. The book is out of print but you can find used copies on Amazon. This is my variation, via Abhilasha.

Red Velvet Beet Soup

1 tablespoon sesame oil (I use toasted)

1 large red onion, chopped

1 cup red lentils

2 carrots, chopped

3 beets, well-scrubbed, ends and root hairs trimmed, chopped

3 bay leaves

½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)

6 cups vegetable stock or water

2 to 3 tablespoons dark miso (or Real Salt to taste)

1 ½ tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)

Wash and drain the lentils. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker or soup pot over medium flame. Add the onion, sauté for 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent.

Stir in the lentils, carrots, beets, bay leaves and thyme, along with the vegetable stock. Bring to pressure in the pressure cooker and cook for 5 minutes. Quick-release the pressure under cold running water. Or, if you don’t have a pressure cooker, cook for an hour on very low heat. You want the vegetables to be very soft.

Remove the bay leaves. Puree the soup with an immersion blender, or if you don’t have one, puree in batches in the blender. (Once, in a rush to get dinner on the table, I neglected to take out the bay leaves. I had to painstakingly strain it to get back the soups velvet texture. Whoops.)

When the soup is smooth and velvety, dissolve the miso in warm water. Add it to the soup. Heat gently but do not boil.

Serve with chopped parsley, (or a swirl of sour cream if dairy is in your diet.)

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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How to pick a ripe honeydew—be picky.

Today as I left the gym after aerobics class, a gentleman stood chatting at the counter holding a beautiful cantaloupe. From 6 feet away, just from the orange peeking out from under its webbed skin, I could tell it was a good one. I asked him where he got it. He replied—Green River. Ahhh. That made sense. We grow very fine cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon here in Utah. Fragrant and luscious as can be, they come north from Green River, a truck and train stop town on the way to Canyonlands National Park near Moab, or Hurricane, a town in Southern Utah near Zion National Park.

I didn’t have a Green River melon for this recipe but I sure wanted one. Exactly 2 ½ weeks ago, I was gifted a honeydew. It never got ripe. I kinda knew that it wouldn’t. Subject honeydew was super hard, did not weigh heavily in my hand or give off any sort of fragrance and the skin was white-green–all the characteristics of a melon picked when immature. It didn’t have a hope for ripeness. But I let it sit on the counter all that time, until I came across this interesting recipe from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen.

I have to say it was the best possible use of a melon unripe without a future because this soup was a winner. I can’t wait to try this recipe again. I am going to start by being picky. I will only buy another honeydew if it has the potential to be delectable—a strong melon smell, a bit of give on the vine end when I touch it, a warmer yellow green and a heft that speaks juicy and yummy. I can already taste the improvement.

Melon-Basil Soup with Cucumber

1 honeydew melon, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped (about 4 cups)

1 cucumber, peeled and seeds removed

1 cup fresh basil leaves

¼ cup ripe avocado

6 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice (I used key limes)

½ teaspoon Real Salt

Extra virgin olive oil

Smoked paprika

Place the chopped melon in a blender jar. Reserve a ¼ of the cucumber; roughly chop the remainder and add it to the blender along with the basil, lime juice and salt. Puree until completely smooth. Chill or serve immediately.

Cut the remaining cucumber in ¼-inch dice. Divide the soup into bowls. Garnish with some diced cucumber, a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of the smoked paprika and if desired, a few grains of high quality salt.

Makes 4 servings.

• Tasting Table adds a couple of ice cubes to the blender for insured coolness.

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Sweet Potato, Green Garlic and Cashew Bisque

Beaches. Good for sun and sand and myriad other fun subjects. My personal favorite is a daily (or more) walk and wave ion fix.  In South Padre Island this April, I joined a 5K “fun run” that started at 8:30 pm at night. Headlamps and flashlights required. I felt so positive loping down the beach with thousands of little lights glowing, mine being one of them, shining extra bright I am sure from the negative wave ion energy.

When I visit my brother and sister-in-law in Newport Beach California, not only do I get my wave ion fix, I get a food fix. My sister-in-law Leslie is a very good cook and a self-described “foodie.” In the last few years she’s been leaning to vegetarian and vegan, and both she and my brother appear slimmer and all the more healthy as a result.

On my most recent trip, we stopped at her plot in the community garden.  There we gathered young squash along with enough squash blossoms to make what is possibly my favorite appetizer–pan-sauteed blossoms with tangy cheese stuffing. But that is another story.

When I left their house the next day, Leslie sent me on my way with a loan–one of her new cookbooks, The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat. This week I tested the ‘cashew cream’ that author/Chef Ronnen calls his vegan staple, his stand-in for dairy in many of the book’s recipes.

I wanted to make whipped cashew cream for a cupcake filling. Warning: don’t put too much fresh cold water in the blender, or you’ll get cashew milk/cream–not thick enough to whip. Another note: the recipe specifies whole raw cashews, not pieces, which are often dry, quote, unquote. I cheaped out and bought cashew pieces. However, that didn’t prove to be the forewarned problem, because my cashew pieces soaked in water 5 days, versus the overnight refrigeration called for; it took that long for me to finally get around to making the cashew cream. Which worked in my favor because even though the recipe said I would have to strain the cashew cream through a fine-mesh sleeve if using a regular blender versus a Vita-Mix, a minute or so in my trusty Braun blends very well-soaked cashew pieces into rich, smooth cream. (If you want to buy me a Vita-Mix for Christmas, start saving. The one I want is $400—and that is the refurbished one.)

I went back to the cookbook to see what Chef Ronnen makes with his regular, thinner cashew cream, like mine. How about using it for the “milk” in mashed potatoes, or “Twice-baked Fingerlings?” Or reducing the thinner version into stunning cream sauce—a vegan beurre blanc? Cream soups anyone? Whichever recipe you choose, plan ahead, because the cashews do need to soak overnight, or 5 nights….

And that is how “Tomato Bisque” from The Conscious Cook became my inspiration for this post.

Sweet Potato, Green Garlic and Cashew Bisque.

For the Cashew Cream:

Rinse 2 cups of whole raw cashews in cold water several times. Put them in a bowl and cover with cold water. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Drain the cashews and rinse again. Place in a blender with enough fresh cold water to cover them by 1 inch. Blend on high speed for several minutes, until very smooth. Strain if the cream is not completely smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the bisque:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

7 bulbs and tender parts of green garlic, finely chopped

2 carrots, cut in ¼-inch dice

1 stalk celery, cut in ¼-inch dice

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

5 to 6 cups vegetable broth

1 bay leaf

2 large garnet sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in ¾-inch chunks

2 cups Cashew Cream (separate recipe)

1 pinch cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Minced chives

Chive blossom petals

Make the bisque: In a soup pot, in medium flame, heat the oil briefly. Before it gets too hot, stir in the minced garlic. Cook and stir a minute or so, then add the diced carrots and celery. Cook and stir 5 to 8 minutes, until the garlic is translucent and the carrots and celery have softened.

Add the paprika, stirring it in until the vegetables are well coated. Add 5 cups of the vegetable broth, the bay leaf and the diced yams.

Bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the yams are very tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Puree with an immersion blender—my first choice. Or, working in batches, pour the soup onto a blender and blend until smooth. (Beware, hot soup tries to burst the blender lid off, creating a huge kitchen counter mess and potential personal burns.)

With the pureed soup in the pot, stir in the Cashew Cream. If you prefer a thinner soup, stir in the last cup of vegetable broth. Heat through. Season with lemon juice, cayenne, and if needed, Real Salt.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with the green chives and purple blossoms.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

• The cashew cream can be made up to one week ahead. That way it will be ready when you are.
• Green garlic is young spring garlic before the bulbs separates into cloves. You can also use garlic scapes, maybe ¼ cup diced, or fully developed garlic, one or 2 cloves at the most.
• Choose sweet potatoes with the darkest copper orange skin. Those will be the ones with the brightest flesh.
• Be sure to remove the bay leaf. I once pureed a soup with the bay leaf in it and I had to strain 8 quarts of thick soup through a fine-mesh sieve to get rid of the unpleasant texture in every spoonful. Dinner took more time than I had planned before it was ready to serve!

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Curry Carrot Soup

I am sure you can flavor this recipe with purchased curry powder but it will not be the same; blending your own spices for curry, I think, is worth the extra three minutes of measuring them out. Portion the spices and set them aside in a little bowl before starting to make the soup.

Adding a potato makes it smoother and creamier—without milk or cream. If you cook everything in a pressure cooker, and puree the soup with an immersion blender, you can have dinner on the table in ½ hour. Figure one-third of the cooking time with in a pressure cooker. Look for mustard seeds in the bulk herb and spice jars at the health food store.

Curry Carrot Soup

3 tablespoons unsalted butter or extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon Real Salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 pound carrots, cleaned and cut into slices

1 potato, peeled and cut into ½” cubes

4 cups cups vegetable stock

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey

Chopped fresh parsley leaves, for garnish

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook and stir the onions and garlic until the onion is translucent. Add all of the spices, from the mustard seeds through the cayenne, and cook for several minutes, stirring constantly. Add the carrots and continue cooking and stirring for several more minutes. Add the vegetable stock, cover tightly, and simmer until the carrots are very tender, at least 1/2 hour.

Puree the cooked carrots in a blender, in batches, or with an immersion blender in the pot. Stir in the lemon juice and agave nectar.

Taste and correct the seasoning with more cayenne and salt as desired. Serve hot, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Simple Leek, Garlic and Potato Soup

For a surprise color, I made this soup with the red-skinned and red-flesh Mountain Rose potato.

diced Mountain Rose potatoes

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 leeks, thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only, about 1 1/2 cups

7 cups light vegetable broth

2 pounds potatoes, well-scrubbed and cut in 3/4-inch dice

7 or 8 cloves garlic, peeled

Real Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chopped green onion, for garnish

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium flame. Add the leeks and cook, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, potatoes and garlic and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 20 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are very tender.

Puree the soup on the pot with an immersion blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If your vegetable broth is low sodium, you will need to add more salt. If you prefer a smooth texture, strain out any skins that did not puree completely.

Serve in bowls, garnished with the chopped green onions.

Makes about 8 servings.

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Green & White Gazpacho

We Ranui Gardens CSA members are lucky that John loves garlic and grows about 10 varietals of hardneck garlic. Hardneck garlic is valued for complexity of flavor, fares well in cooler climes and has a shorter storage life.

Early in the season we enjoyed scapes, the edible green stalks shooting out of the middle of hardneck garlic plants.  Cutting off the scape sends more nutrition to the garlic in the ground, though if the scape is not cut, the tip forms bulbils, or flowers, also edible.  We’ve also had “green” or young garlic in our boxes this year, pulled from the ground before the cloves are well formed. Now Ranui’s garlic is mature and cured, having cured for three to four weeks and we are getting some in our boxes as often as zucchini.

This time of year I make gazpacho, a cold soup of Spanish origin, with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and garlic. (And why not add some of those tender small zucchini?)

There are thousands of gazpacho recipes out there, variations on the hot weather and summer harvest theme. Because tomatoes are not in the mix, this recipe is untraditional. But it does have a good dose of garlic.  I wrote an article about Garlic and Gazpacho for Salt Lake City’s Catalyst Magazine’s August issue. Here is the recipe I gave. Hint: If you hit a clove of garlic with the side of chef’s knife, the skin will loosen and make it easy to peel.

3 cloves garlic, (peeled and crushed)

3 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 small green pepper

2 green onions, chopped

2 tbs. chopped fresh basil, cilantro or parsley

2 cups cold vegetable broth

2 cups plain yogurt

2 to 3 tbs. sherry wine vinegar or fresh-squeezed lemon juice

3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt

White pepper

Cherry tomatoes, red or gold, cut in tiny wedges

Fresh basil, cilantro or parsley, chopped, for garnish

Put the garlic, half of the cucumbers, green pepper, green onions, basil and vegetable broth in a blender and puree until smooth. Add the remaining cucumbers and puree. Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the yogurt, vinegar and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Chill until cold. Serve garnished with the tomatoes, and more green onions and fresh herbs.

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More Zucchini

Well I guess since zucchini is green it falls into the category of greens, and farmer John did say there would be lots of greens in our Ranui CSA boxes. This is the third week straight with zucchini.

What to do?  At least it’s the Roman varietal zucchini in our boxes; Costata Romanesca does have more substance and real flavor than the brunt—of–jokes classic green zucchini .

Zucchini Ideas:

Grill zucchini simply, with olive oil and salt and pepper, which is what we did last week.

Or bake up some Chocolate Zucchini muffins—a variation from the Chocolate Zucchini Bread in my Chocolate Snowball cookbook.

Go to fellow blogger Gwen’s  terrific recipe for stuffed zucchini—and read her funny comments about zucchini.

This post from another blogger has ideas for the top 10 best things to do with too much zucchini. As I read Cheryl’s ideas I was giggling out loud—“lol” in internet vernacular.

This summer I’ve been writing monthly for Catalyst Magazine here in Utah. Go to Catalyst’s July issue to learn fun zucchini facts and trivia as well as my advice to pick and enjoy the blossoms before they turn into the green phallic fruit.

Here is a variation on the recipe for Squash Blossom Soup from that same Catalyst article. Enjoy this soup hot or cold.

For efficiency, use an immersion blender to puree the soup, it stands right in the soup pot and eliminates the muss and fuss of hot soup transfer and exploding out of the blender. An immersion blender is a purchase worth every penny.

Cotija cheese is a Hispanic-style cheese–somewhat salty and doesn’t really melt–you may substitute any cheese you want or skip it altogether.

Squash Blossoms on the Grill

Zucchini Soup

1 tablespoon canola or grapeseed oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

About 5 cups grated zucchini

3 cups veggie broth

1/4 cup cilantro, basil or parsley leaves

Dash cayenne pepper

Real Salt or sea salt

1/2 cup crumbled cotija cheese, optional

1/4 cup lightly toasted pumpkin seeds, optional

Avocado slices, optional

In a large saucepan, heat the oil on medium heat and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and the broth, cilantro and cayenne. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, until the zucchini is soft. Puree in a blender, or with an immersion blender.

Season to taste with sea salt and more cayenne.

Serve garnished with garnishes of crumbled cheese, pumpkin seeds or slices of avocado, if you wish.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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Red Lentils and Garlic Scapes

You can go two ways with red lentils—cook them until they are barely tender, 8 to 10 minutes, or cook them longer, 25 to 35 minutes and (whoops?) you’ve made a thick soup, popularly known as dal in India. This recipe features Indian spices–let’s shoot for the first and if we end up with dal, no problem.

cooked and drained red lentils

Red lentils are not truly red, but more orange in hue, and when cooked, they turn yellow, even more so when seasoned with turmeric!

expensive scapes

Today I saw Garlic Scapes in the local very expensive health food store. They were on sale: 2 for $6.00. Someone is laughing all the way to the bank and I bet it s not the farmer.  But today we have scapes in our Ranui Gardens CSA box. Garlic scapes are mellow in garlic flavor, like green garlic, and another early bonus, besides green garlic, of a garlic crop. To prepare the scapes, trim and remove the seedpods from the top. Break away the tougher bottom part just as you might for asparagus.

trimmed and ready for chopping

The cumin and mustard seeds add a fabulous dimension to the curry and can be bought in small amounts from the bulk spice section at our local health food store. If you don’t have the seeds, substitute with ground spices.

Red Lentils and Garlic Scapes

1 cup red lentils

4 cups water

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon black (or brown or yellow) mustard seeds

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger

1 clove garlic, minced

½ teaspoon Real Salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

1 cup chopped garlic scapes (1/4-inch pieces)

Rinse and pick over the lentils, discarding anything foreign. In a saucepan, bring to a boil in the water. Cook about 8 minutes. The peas should still be firm, barely tender. Drain and rinse them with cold water. Set aside.

Measure the cumin and mustard seeds, the curry powder, coriander, cumin, turmeric, ginger, garlic, salt and cayenne into a small bowl. In a skillet, heat the oil over medium flame. Add the scapes and sauté until the scapes are tender but crunchy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the spices and cook, stirring constantly, until you hear the mustard seeds pop, about 30 seconds. Stir in the cooked lentils and cook until they are heated through. Season to taste with salt, if needed.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

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