I might have to give lentils a rest. When I served dinner, my youngest asked me if this wasn't the 10th time I had served lentils in the last month or so. Definitely an exaggeration, but I did go from never fixing lentils, to trying 3 lentil soups in rapid succession.
This lentil soup, from January's Cooking Light, is easy to put together and the chickpeas were a nice addition. While I did like the smoky flavor and the hint of heat, it was probably my least favorite of the three we've tried recently. Still, it's another easy and nutritious "pantry" kind of meal where you're likely to always have the ingredients on hand.
So, the soup was good, but the side dish was great. This is another recipe from Peter Berley's Fresh Food Fast. This cookbook also brought us my new favorite soup, the Lemon Lentil Soup with Spinach. My SIL fixed this cauliflower side dish along with that soup for us at Thanksgiving and I've been wanting to fix it ever since.
I liked it even better than I remember - the tartness of the capers and lemon go so well with the salty, savory feta. Sometimes vegetables dishes don't make good leftovers, but not so with this dish - I enthusiastically polished off all the leftovers for lunch over the last two days and wish there were more. It's rare that I actually crave a vegetable dish. But the best part? My oldest son piped up during dinner "Good cauliflower dish, Mom.". I hear that for my main dishes fairly frequently, but when such a thing is uttered for a vegetable side dish, it is high praise indeed.
The cauliflower gratin looks great.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to get better at cooking veggies, so I'll definitely have to try that one.
Hi Tracy. I'm not very creative with my side dishes, mostly because I don't want to increase my time in the kitchen most nights, but this one was worth it.
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