Sprout & Pea

There’s a first time for every­thing and this week was both my first bike acci­dent and my first time mak­ing lentils. My week­end started off great with friends and fam­ily in town– birth­day cel­e­bra­tions, brunches, din­ners, a whole lot of cake and a whole lot of love. On Sun­day, we decided to make the most of my guests’ last day in town and also take advan­tage of the fleet­ing 80 degree weather. So, my friends rented some bikes and we set out for the tour de Brook­lyn (not to be con­fused with the Tour de Taco- an actual annual and awe­some event). Things started out great and it was shap­ing up to be a beau­ti­ful after­noon. Then it hap­pened– my tire and the side­walk got into a lit­tle quar­rel that resulted in my face meet­ing the ground.

It was messy but it could have been much worse and I was thank­ful to have walked away with only a few bad wounds– albeit painful ones. Two days later, I sud­denly real­ized my thumb injury was a bit worse off than I had thought. When I went to chop some gar­lic in the kitchen, I found myself in mega pain. I gave into it, ate a slice of left­over pizza for din­ner, and let myself relax that night.

I was freaked out (and still am until I go to see a hand spe­cial­ist today). The idea that this pos­si­ble torn lig­a­ment in my hand could pre­vent me from doing one of my favorite things in the world is out of the ques­tion. So, with that spirit, I decided to make myself din­ner last night. I thought I could use my other hand to chop some veg­gies. I was excited too because for some rea­son I’ve never ever cooked lentils. So, it would be a fresh start and I would maneu­ver my chop­ping meth­ods and if need be work through the pain. After one slice of a tomato, I real­ized I was per­haps being a lit­tle bit ambi­tious. When my door­bell rang a few min­utes later, I had to ask my poor friend who had stopped by to say hi after a long day at work to help me make my din­ner. She was a gem– a gem who almost sliced off a fin­ger, but thank­fully the evening ended with only one of us still injured.

Once my veg­gies were all chopped, the rest was easy. In fact, I started to embrace the idea of doing every­thing with one hand. It made me move slower and in fact made the entire expe­ri­ence a bit more spe­cial and even more relax­ing. Of course, tonight when I got home and it took me a good ten min­utes to open up a can of beans, I started to get a bit frus­trated, but I made it hap­pen! At any rate, I’m cross­ing fin­gers that my doc­tors appoint­ment goes well and in the mean­time, I’d love to share my lentil recipe that, after some hard work, I thor­oughly enjoyed. Here’s the recipe, made with gen­tle care and a lot of love…

1 cup dried lentils
2 cups veg­etable broth (for cook­ing lentils)
1 cup dry white wine
1 medium leek chopped (white and light green parts only)
1 roma tomato chopped
2 cloves of gar­lic chopped
1/​3 cup tomato paste
1/​4 cup veg­etable broth
1–2 tbs extra vir­gin olive oil
1 tbs chili pow­der
salt and pep­per to taste
1 avo­cado sliced for top­ping
Greek yogurt for topping

In a small-​​medium pot, bring veg­etable broth and white wine to boil and add lentils. Cook for 5 min­utes, remove from heat, cover and let sit. Lentils will cook fur­ther while sit­ting. Mean­while, in a pan, sautee the gar­lic and leeks over medium-​​high heat until the leeks soft­ened, mak­ing sure not to brown. Once leeks are soft, add the toma­toes and stir. Add the tomato paste and stir again for a few min­utes and then add the veg­etable broth. Con­tinue stir­ring and add in chili pep­per and salt and pep­per to taste. Add the lentils and any broth remain­ing in the pot to the pan and mix together, cover and let cook for about 15–20 min­utes (stir­ring occa­sion­ally) or until lentils are cooked through.