{Be Nourished} Spanish Lentils

Around the table, food and people come together. The table is an iconic place of communion. The table is the host of gatherings where heaping plates are passed around incessantly with the clicking of utensils creating a symphony, and the loud conversations and laughs echoing all around. At the table we eat, we unite, we love, and might just feel like all we need from the world is right there.

Many of my most treasured memories involve food and loved ones around the table, like New Year’s Day at my grandmother’s house where a plate of lentils was the norm, as it is a belief for many Hispanics cultures that eating them on New Year’s day will bring abundance for the upcoming year. Even though my believe is that they bring nothing more than just beautiful memories, is a tradition I have maintained throughout the years; whether at a kitchen counter with just my mom by my side, or at a strange but newly familiar table around the in-laws, to enjoying them with my very own party of four.

Food has a special way of giving us memorable moments anew and reviving hundreds of long-lived ones at the same time.

Even when it is just you and the plate in front of you, when loved ones are not physically present in the table; food still gives us communion. Even when the passing motion, the clicking and the voices are not there; you might just still feel like your entire world is right there.

“You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.” – Frederick Buechner, Telling The Truth

Spanish Lentils

1. In a food processor chop 1 half white onion, 1 half orange pepper and 4 garlic cloves.
2. In a large pot or cast iron oven heat 2 TBSP olive oil and add 2 sliced Spanish chorizos to slightly brown. Add, 2 chopped large carrots, 1 chopped celery stalk, and the onion mix and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
3. Add 16 oz. of green lentils, 1 32 oz. chicken stock carton, 1 cup water, 4 whole peppercorns, 2 laurel leaves, and 1 tsp salt.
4. Bring to a slow boil and simmer in medium heat, stirring often, until lentils are soft but still firm to the bite “al dente”.
5. When serving remove laurel leaves and peppercorns. Optionally serve with raw onion slices and a drizzle of olive oil.