Black Lentil

This urad dal recipe comes out quite thick, which is why it’s usually served with flatbreads such as naan or chapati rather than rice.

Pakistani haleem is a warmly spiced, satisfyingly thick stew made from long-simmered lentils, barley, and bone-in chunks of lamb or goat.

Let’s be honest, this salad is a vehicle for eating crispy, melty cheese for dinner. Not just any cheese, but rich and dense grillable cheeses like bread cheese, Halloumi, or paneer. When grilled or seared, these varieties brown and crisp on the outside while becoming soft and meaty inside, without melting into a puddle.

Pan-searing, then quickly braising, celery in wine turns the humble vegetable into something worthy of a main course. (Of course, adding marinated lentils, crusty bread, and a fried egg doesn’t hurt.)

Stirring a simple vinaigrette into warm just-cooked lentils helps them drink up flavor so they taste anything but plain. Use French green or black beluga lentils as they will hold their shape best. You can keep a batch of these dressed lentils in the fridge and add to salads, pastas, soups, and more all week long.

All of the satisfaction of a hearty, rich, bean-based cassoulet without the painstaking hours of prepping and cooking.

Serve creamy sweet potatoes and crispy-edged mushrooms over a bed of herby feta-tahini sauce for a dinner that’s easy, comforting, and perfect for fall.

We love the roasted sweet potatoes in this bowl, but any hardy vegetable would be just as delicious. Try delicata squash, cauliflower, or eggplant.

If you’re reading this, you’re alive. But if you’re not taking advantage of nature’s most underrated legume, are you really living?

Start your weekend mornings right with this healthier, more delicious breakfast bowl.

Aptly named beluga lentils look like little beads of caviar. They cook quickly, and they hold their shape.

This appetizer is a total fake-out and a lot of fun to serve. Ellen and Portia absolutely loved these the first time I served them. They both had fond memories attached to caviar, and this recipe brought back those fun times without compromising their vegan diet. Serve these little morsels with a glass of Champagne and share them with some cool friends.

High-protein lentils are enlivened here by coriander, ginger, mint, and cilantro. For the best flavor, toast whole coriander seeds, then grind them to a fine powder. In a pinch, you can substitute a teaspoon of ground coriander instead of grinding your own. Beets add heart-healthy iron, potassium, and folate.

When I was chef de cuisine at Campanile, I had to make brisket every Friday for the weekend brunch menu. Pounds and pounds of it passed through the hot ovens and sat resting on the counter before it was put away in the refrigerator. Sometimes I’d hear someone whisper, “Hide the brisket, she’s coming.” Nancy Silverton, the owner, would suddenly appear from around the corner, fingers poised to pilfer the fatty top layer from the roast. It was so rich and addictive, we couldn’t blame her. When you buy your brisket, don’t let your butcher cut away that top fatty layer; it adds essential flavor and keeps the brisket from drying out. Look for a brisket sold “point-on”—that triangular end is the most tender and flavorful part of the meat. You don’t have to serve both sauces with the brisket, but I think it’s super delicious that way. One bite gets an herby, acidic note of salsa verde and the next one rewards you with a fiesty horseradish cream. When I made this dish at home, my husband, brother-in-law, and best friend managed to polish off the entire 6-pound brisket by themselves while watching a single basketball game. I was shocked. It’s always better to make more brisket rather than less. And even if your friends don’t have as big appetites as mine do, you’ll be happy to have the leftovers for sandwiches or hash the next day.

These tiny black lentils are named for their resemblance to caviar.

There are as many varieties of dal (the nourishing lentil soup) as there are towns and villages in India. Our recipe is inspired by the one served at Kasa Indian Eatery, just down the street from the Market. It gets a dose of butter, which makes the soup incredibly rich in flavor, and pureeing half gives it extra creaminess. This recipe can easily be doubled.

This flexible salad relies on pantry staples and long-lasting veggies, so it’s easy to keep the ingredients around for making on the fly. It’s also the perfect place to use infused olive oils, especially herby ones like tarragon oil.

Thin and crisp, the distinctively large and cylindrical dosa are the famous crispbreads of southern India. Made from a base of ground lentils and rice, they’re delicious and, paired with a simple raita or chutney, the basis of a meal for many people. I ate dosa with amazement throughout India, but I learned how to make them here, with help from Monica Bhide and Suvir Saran, both friends who have written wonderful books about Indian cooking. Note that the difficult part of the dosa-making process—soaking and pureeing—can easily be bypassed if you have an industrial milling machine that can pulverize the lentils and rice into flour straightaway. And a couple of companies do just that, adding salt and fenugreek for flavor, add baking soda to give them a little puff, and sell the resulting mix throughout India and in the States. This mix makes dosa a convenience food you can fry up at the drop of a hat. I think it’s still worthwhile to give this recipe a try, but if the soaking and pureeing are going to keep you from trying dosa, by all means use the mix. Soak the lentil and rice flour in water as directed on the back of the package, and when the batter’s ready, start with step 4. (You can use the mix for the uttapam on the next page as well.)

Some people think of lentils only in terms of soup, but you can do a lot with the lowly lentil. Here I go for a classic flavor combo and add some beautiful bacon into the mix . . . as I always say, everything tastes better with bacon!