Everyday Red Lentil Dal Recipe

Over Christmas Mom was sick and working her usual erratic, demanding hours managing the Goochland Free Clinic's Dental program leaving Dad and I to fend for ourselves a bit. I saw she still was hoarding red lentil's from a trip to visit me in NYC very early in my tenure and decided to put them to use. Only I didn't have a recipe.

I didn't get creative, but with a bit of my usual internet sleuthing I found this Everyday Red Lentil Dal recipe, which I would probably eat every day given the option. We ate the slightly spicy, warm mixture with Stacy's Pita chips and a salad for dinner. I had it alone the next day for lunch and so on. It's super easy to put together, requires under an hour to prepare and is pretty much impossible to screw up. If you overcook the lentils this time no big deal as they are supposed to be mush anyway.  Delicious, healthy mush that is full of flavor.

I'm stoked that Leslie is making the original recipe with yellow split peas this weekend and some tasty sounding dips. It turns out I had bookmarked the original ages ago at Smitten Kitchen and when I sent Leslie ideas for this weekend's movie-meal plan it was her choice. Can't wait!

Cilantro Hummus

After purchasing the biggest bunch of cilantro ever for $1.50 at Green Market, I was forced to find a creative way to use a lot of it at once before it went bad. This simple recipe for Lime Cilantro Hummus was perfect.

I don't have a food processor, but my hand held blender wand worked fine to process the ingredients. My only other substitution was lime juice from a squeeze bottle instead of lime zest and fresh squeezed juice.

The resulting flavor was amazing (I LOVE cilantro) and the whole process took maybe 20 minutes. I will definitely revisit this and make my own hummus moving forward. To make the lime flavor more pronounced, I might even follow the directions next time.