Not included in the job description for “New York Times Cooking editor” is the responsibility of, essentially, acting as Food Google for the people in your life. (H.R., call me, let’s get this in writing.)
No one seizes upon this quite like my friend Scaachi. There are the near daily “What should I make for dinner” texts, followed by more pointed inquiries: “Does it have to be chunky peanut butter?” (No.) “What if I can’t find hoisin?” (You will.) “I don’t like bagged coleslaw, can I just cut vegetables?” (Yes.) “Can I skip the shallots they seem fussy?” (Never skip crispy shallots — just buy instead of fry.)
A few weeks ago, she texted me Ali Slagle’s new-ish recipe for gorgeously green spicy miso lentil soup. “I don’t know what kind of lentils I have but I have so many kinds,” she wrote. “I have French lentils I think? What are those.”
French lentils, or Le Puy lentils, are a type of green lentil, and they are ideal for Ali’s soup. Like brown or black lentils (such as Beluga lentils), their skins are intact, so they maintain their shape when cooked. “Any differences in appearance, texture and taste among these three types of lentils are negligible enough that they can be used interchangeably,” Ali writes in this thorough explainer on all things lentil. “Use whichever variety is available to you.”
Case in point: Naz Deravian’s mujadara, a hearty and cost-effective dish of lentils and rice topped with beautifully brown fried onions, calls for green, brown or black lentils. And this summery orzo salad from Ali, filled with raw zucchini, crunchy nuts, pickled pepperoncini peppers, scallions and herbs, takes well to either green or brown lentils.
Orzo Salad With Lentils and Zucchini
Use French green (or black) lentils in Yossy Arefi’s five-star brown butter lentil and sweet potato salad. It is everything you want in a weeknight dinner (or lunch!) salad: simple, textural, fragrant, inexpensive, filling and, according to Jena, a reader, “bussin.”
Though these skin-on varieties are often swappable, French lentils are preferable for Lisa Donovan’s sturdy French lentil salad, bright with carrot coins, tendrils of radicchio and oh-so-many herbs. It’s the kind of salad the corner cafe would charge you $18 for. Do not let them. You have $18 salad at home for a fraction of the cost.
Red lentils will cook down to a mushier texture because they’re often sold skinned and split. These are soup and stew all-stars, awaiting their moment in Zaynab Issa’s curried coconut and red lentil soup, punched up with a swirl of chile crisp and a squeeze of lime. And because it would be heresy not to mention it: Melissa Clark’s five-star, rated-33,000-times-and-counting red lentil soup. But you’re not new to this, you’re true to this.
Lentils cook pretty quickly. Depending on the kind you’re working with, they’ll take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. Quicker, though, are canned lentils.
Canned lentils are often brown or green, and because you know they’re pretty interchangeable, you should be empowered to use a 14-ounce can of either in Kay Chun’s summer-ready tomato-marinated greens and beans toast. It’s a no-cook dish built for hot afternoons: The acid of capers, vinegar and grated tomatoes softens ribbons of Swiss chard, which are combined with halved cherry tomatoes and the canned lentils for a perfect toast-topper.
And because I know Scaachi will ask: Yes, you can swap in kale or mustard greens. No, you don’t have to use canned, you can cook a pot of dried lentils instead. And yes, you can eat that saucy combo with pasta instead of on bread.
Spicy Miso Lentil Soup
Mujadara (Lentils and Rice With Fried Onions)
Tomato-Marinated Greens and Beans Toast
One More Thing!
A likely text for me to receive: Do I need to refrigerate ketchup?
Thankfully, Kristen Miglore put together a brilliant A-to-Z guide to storing condiments. Bookmark it, or save the handy fridge vs. pantry chart to your phone. Between us, I’m breaking a few of these rules. Please don’t tell the food safety microbiologists on me.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
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Tanya Sichynsky is an editor for the Food and Cooking sections of The Times and the author of The Veggie, a weekly vegetarian newsletter.
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