olive oil, but to eat like an Egyptian, allow each person to salt his own ful.
This recipe doubles easily and can be served with homemade matzo or any flatbread that pleases you.
Serves 4
3 cups small fava beans cooked as per master plan (see page 16 ), or for an easier way, two 15-ounce cans ful, rinsed
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup red lentils
1½ cups Stone Soup (see page 84 ) or other vegetable broth, water, or reserved fava bean cooking liquid
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tomatoes, chopped, or one 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Olive oil for garnish (optional)
Tahini for garnish (optional)
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and chopped tomatoes for garnish (optional)
Chopped scallions for garnish (optional)
In a medium saucepan, heat the cooked fava beans over mediumhigh heat. Add the garlic, lentils, broth, cumin, and tomatoes. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until everything starts to come together and the red lentils become tender, about 12 minutes.
Stir and smoosh until you get the consistency you like. Some people like their ful totally creamy, others more on the beany side. Stir in the lemon juice and ½ cup parsley. (The ful can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 1 week; bring to room temperature just before serving.)
Top with your choice of garnishes, such as olive oil, tahini, parsley, tomatoes, and scallions.
GENTLE NUDGE the FOURTH: REDEFINING COMFORT
You look like you could be a chocolate person, but a little more interesting. Yeah? So let’s say your comfort food of choice isturbofudge ice cream with salted toffee chunks. The coldness, the sweetness, the pop of saltiness, the clever interplay between the crunch of toffee and the coat-your-throat creaminess of the ice cream makes your eyes glaze with pleasure.
Or perhaps you’re more of a mac-and-cheese sort. Creamy gets you off, too, but it has to be savory — salty and fatty, with a warm sauce of cheese (or what passes for it) robing noodles that ain’t seen al dente in a while.
In both cases, these foods are so easy to eat, you barely have to chew. And you barely have to think, not if the manufacturers have done their job right. That salty/fatty/sweet flavor combination you love? Food companies love it, too, because it spikes your blood-sugar level and lights up all the pleasure receptors in your brain. This pretty light show comes with not-so-pretty consequences. It turns consumers into eating machines who don’t question what the food is doing to them or to the environment. It turns us into junkies. Junkies are not good decision makers. Or rather, they’re good at deciding all they want is more junk.
Within half an hour of eating your favorite indulgence, you hit comedown. Your blood sugar falls, along with your energy — and perhaps your self-image because you realize, congratulations, you’ve just loaded up on saturated fats, processed sugar, extra salt, and empty calories, plus a few chemical compounds you can’t pronounce, let alone comprehend. Where’s the comfort in that?
How food makes you feel is as important as how it tastes. Where it gets confusing is the emotional component — the “I want, I want, I want”s — having positive associations with food that promises comfort but lies to you. I hate liars.
How do you define comfort food? For me, it’s something nourishing and pleasurable, energizing when I’m feeling good,propping me up when I’m needing support. That means something green and leafy; but serve a bowl of spinach to someone who’s being visited by the Crap Fairy, and in most cases, you will not be greeted warmly, despite all your good intentions.
While I usually want something spicy or crunchy like a twenty-ingredient curry, in times when I’m in need of comfort, I want something simple to make and simple to eat, gentle in spicing, soft in texture, tender, because I want to be
This recipe doubles easily and can be served with homemade matzo or any flatbread that pleases you.
Serves 4
3 cups small fava beans cooked as per master plan (see page 16 ), or for an easier way, two 15-ounce cans ful, rinsed
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup red lentils
1½ cups Stone Soup (see page 84 ) or other vegetable broth, water, or reserved fava bean cooking liquid
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tomatoes, chopped, or one 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Olive oil for garnish (optional)
Tahini for garnish (optional)
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and chopped tomatoes for garnish (optional)
Chopped scallions for garnish (optional)
In a medium saucepan, heat the cooked fava beans over mediumhigh heat. Add the garlic, lentils, broth, cumin, and tomatoes. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until everything starts to come together and the red lentils become tender, about 12 minutes.
Stir and smoosh until you get the consistency you like. Some people like their ful totally creamy, others more on the beany side. Stir in the lemon juice and ½ cup parsley. (The ful can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 1 week; bring to room temperature just before serving.)
Top with your choice of garnishes, such as olive oil, tahini, parsley, tomatoes, and scallions.
GENTLE NUDGE the FOURTH: REDEFINING COMFORT
You look like you could be a chocolate person, but a little more interesting. Yeah? So let’s say your comfort food of choice isturbofudge ice cream with salted toffee chunks. The coldness, the sweetness, the pop of saltiness, the clever interplay between the crunch of toffee and the coat-your-throat creaminess of the ice cream makes your eyes glaze with pleasure.
Or perhaps you’re more of a mac-and-cheese sort. Creamy gets you off, too, but it has to be savory — salty and fatty, with a warm sauce of cheese (or what passes for it) robing noodles that ain’t seen al dente in a while.
In both cases, these foods are so easy to eat, you barely have to chew. And you barely have to think, not if the manufacturers have done their job right. That salty/fatty/sweet flavor combination you love? Food companies love it, too, because it spikes your blood-sugar level and lights up all the pleasure receptors in your brain. This pretty light show comes with not-so-pretty consequences. It turns consumers into eating machines who don’t question what the food is doing to them or to the environment. It turns us into junkies. Junkies are not good decision makers. Or rather, they’re good at deciding all they want is more junk.
Within half an hour of eating your favorite indulgence, you hit comedown. Your blood sugar falls, along with your energy — and perhaps your self-image because you realize, congratulations, you’ve just loaded up on saturated fats, processed sugar, extra salt, and empty calories, plus a few chemical compounds you can’t pronounce, let alone comprehend. Where’s the comfort in that?
How food makes you feel is as important as how it tastes. Where it gets confusing is the emotional component — the “I want, I want, I want”s — having positive associations with food that promises comfort but lies to you. I hate liars.
How do you define comfort food? For me, it’s something nourishing and pleasurable, energizing when I’m feeling good,propping me up when I’m needing support. That means something green and leafy; but serve a bowl of spinach to someone who’s being visited by the Crap Fairy, and in most cases, you will not be greeted warmly, despite all your good intentions.
While I usually want something spicy or crunchy like a twenty-ingredient curry, in times when I’m in need of comfort, I want something simple to make and simple to eat, gentle in spicing, soft in texture, tender, because I want to be
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