Well, I made a nice chili this weekend, using the three types pictured at top. Very nice and filling, but not especially pretty. I also made a lentil salad (first time) with diced red and yellow peppers and both the green and the white parts of green onions, and a vinagrette of olive oil and lemon balsamic vinegar. Very pretty! The lentils lost a lot of the black color, and were more dark brown, but the diced veggies glowed like little jewels. (You have expected it to be sweet, and the peppers actually were.) Lousy photo with my cell phone:

Here's one of my favourite Spanish dishes - Although I have been making it for years the way a Spanish cook once showed me, this time I followed the preparation seen recently on a Spanish Cooking TV channel. Their ingredients included a small piece of or pork fat and a stewing chorizo (chorizo para guisar). If choosing a chorizo for this dish, be sure it is the right type which has the red pimiento colour. The small piece of tocino can be seen just to the right of the sprig of rosemary. Stewed Lentils (Lentejas Estofadas) 350 grams (1 1/2 cups) of small dark lentils - put them to soak the night before in water to cover 100 grams (3.5 oz) red stewing chorizo sausage - lightly pricked over with tines of a fork 50 grams (1.7 oz) salted tocino pork fat - cut into large diced pieces 1 TBSP flour 2 carrots diced fine 2 medium leeks, using only white stems sliced finely in rounds 1 lg clove garlic (this was optional but I wouldn't leave it out) - pass through garlic press 2 cups beef broth (I used 2 Knorr cubes) 1 bay leaf fresh rosemary - small sprig olive oil - about 1/4 cup 2 cups extra water to add after 1st hour 1. Soak lentils the NIGHT BEFORE in water to cover. * Note this if now often unnecessary with newer fast cooking lentils. 2. Next day drain and rinse lentils, put aside. 3. Heat olive oil in heavy cooking pot. When sizzling, add carrots, garlic and leeks. Lightly brown while stirring. 4. Add 1 TBSP flour and keep stirring for about a minute. 5. Add lentils, beef broth, whole chorizo, tocino, laurel and rosemary 6. Put on lid and simmer very gently for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Check after 1st hour and add up to 2 more cups water as needed. 7. Adjust seasoning and serve. ***************************************** Lentil & Potato Potaje (Potaje de Lentejas y Patatas) 3 cups of presoaked lentils 4 medium potatoes - cut into large dice 2 slices of stale bread 3 cloves garlic vinegar salt Put lentils in large pot, cover with water and begin to boil. As soon as lentils have begun to cook do the following: In a frying pan with 1/2 inch of oil brown the garlic and then add the bread and fry until brown. Remove garlic before it's too dark. Put browned bread and garlic into a mortar and grind to a paste. During the early part of cooking the lentils add the paste from the mortar to the lentils together with the oil that's left in the pan After about half an hour and before lentils are tender, add the diced or quartered potatoes, salt and finish cooking until all is tender. Check and correct salt and a dash of vinegar before serving. Source: A cook friend from Mallorca. *************************************** LENTIL & VEGETABLE SOUP Ingredients: lentils - 250 grams (slightly over 1 cup) garlic - one whole head onion - 1 large - quartered Kasseler smoked pork chop - 1 large (or 250 grams other smoked pork or bacon) ham or pork bone as for making stock 4 medium carrots - sliced into coins 2 stalks celery - diced 5 medium potatoes - peeled and cut into 8ths 6 flowerettes of cauliflower green beans - handful sliced tomato puré - small 4 oz tin olive oil - 4 TBS fresh garden herbs: 1 bay leaf, several sprigs thyme, Italian flatleaf parsley 2 or 3 sprigs chicken stock 1 liter (4 cups) or water and 3 Knorr chicken stock cubes salt & fesh ground pepper water to cook lentils vinegar - 1 teasp garlic croutons - optional garnish Method: 1) Turn on oven to 350F. Put lentils in large heavy bottomed stew pot with water to cover plus about 2 inches, bring to boil and simmer 45 minutes. Check water level and add more as needed. 2) Meanwhile put whole head of garlic into shallow baking pan together with quartered onion, Kasseler or smoked pork and ham or pork bone, drizzle with olive oil and roast in oven at medium heat about 45 minutes. 3) Remove baking tray from oven when all is nicely browned and cut meat into small dice and add to lentil pot along with onion. Squeeze garlic from skin into lentil pot, adding ham/pork bone along with oil and juices scraped from roasting pan. 4) Add rest of vegetables to lentils, chicken stock (or water and stock cubes), tomato puré, fresh herbs and bay leaf, parsley - reserving one sprig, fresh ground pepper. Bring to boil and simmer about 1 hour until vegetables are done, adding more water if needed. 5) When vegetables are tender, remove ham/pork bones and any bare thyme stems from pot, check for flavour and add salt as needed. Add vinegar and stir. 6) Serve with a bit of chopped parsley and more fresh ground pepper. Homemade garlic croutons are also nice as a garnish. Source: Recipe as I learned from a Mallorquin housewife years ago. ******************************* Lentil Purée Convert leftover stewed lentils into a delicious purée by putting them into a food processor and adding the following: 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth 2 lg cloves of garlic crushed and browned in 1/4 cup oil in small frypan 2 slices brown bread broken in small pieces and fried in the garlicky oil until brown Processed the above until smooth and then heat it gently. Dice more pieces of brown bread and toasted them in the frying pan with oil and garlic salt for the croutons. SharonCb

I like that recipe a lot. All things I like and things I have. The cucumbers have been very nice so far. I like them in just vinegar and water. I've been keeping some in the refrigerator and eating them as my late night snack with a bit of salt sprinkled on just before eating. Last night I had some yellow tomato with it. This soup would be a good late night meal for me too. Thanks for posting it Laceyvail.

In India, legumes of all sorts are a very important part of the daily diet and they have been ingenious in devising different (and very tasty) ways of using them. They are cooked as a side dish, a soup, combined with meats or vegetables in main dishes, ground into flour, formed into thin rounds that are then toasted or fried into the most lovely, crunchy and delicate wafers, made into chutneys, toasted with spices and ground to powder to sprinkle onto rice as a flavoring, cooked with rice to increase it's nutritional value, and gosh, I'm sure I've left some things out! I love to make a thick dish of Indian Dal (lentils) to have with rice and other dishes for one meal and then use the leftover Dal the next day, thinned with water, stock or coconut milk and flavored with a variety of seasonings and vegetables as a starter soup with dinner or as breakfast with some more rice. Indian cuisine makes use of many spices unfamiliar to us in America, but online sources have made it possible even for those living in areas where ethnic markets are rare or far distant to experiment. As jxbrown wrote, red lentils (masoor dal in Indian markets) don't hold their shape when cooked, so they aren't appropriate for dishes like salads. On the other hand, they cook much more quickly, which is convenient when you decide you want a dish of lentils but don't have a lot of time. Here is a very tasty recipe from Williams Sonoma's "Savoring India" that is neither too hot (for those unaccustomed to the more fiery Indian foods) nor too complicated. I make my own Garam Masala, but premade is fairly easy to find and is a versatile spice mix, easy to find uses for if you buy some. Dilliwale Dal (Delhi-style lentils) 1 1/2 c red lentils 1/2 t ground turmeric 4 c water 1 1/2 t salt, or to taste 1 tomato, finely chopped 3 T vegetable oil 1 t cumin seeds 1 yellow onion, finely chopped 4 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced or minced 1/2 t cayenne 1 t garam masala 1/4 c finely chopped fresh cilantro Check lentils for stones and rinse well. Add the turmeric and water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and gently simmer until the lentils are tender, appx. 25 minutes. Add salt and tomato and cook until the tomato is soft, appx. 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to very low while you make the spice-infused flavoring. Heat the oil over a medium-high heat. Add the cumin and saute until it turns very dark, about 30 seconds. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring until they are light golden, appx. 6 minutes. Stir in the cayenne pepper and garam masala and pour the entire contents of the pan over the lentils. Add the cilantro, mix well. Check and adjust salt and seasonings and serve. If you don't care for cilantro, you can substitute a drizzle of lemon or lime juice. The lentils should be thick, but still a bit soupy, so if they dry out too quickly, just add a bit more water.