Divine lentils from another world

inspiration from Lebanon to Italy

Gorgeous weather at Salone del Gusto in Turin at Parco Dora

Feeling schizofrenic at this moment dear readers,

You are here for the food i know, i will only briefly take you into my reality. Not without a recipe, of course. I’m sitting here, typing this with boxes piling up in the living, the messy reality of moving to a new house.

The world goes on, but now that Lebanon is also being bombed nonstop (who could have imagined!), i just only think of my Lebanese friends. The fear. How they explain this unimaginable situation to their kids. I think of all those generous loving women i had the chance to cook with, in the south, in the Beqaa. With what kind of love they would fry those onions. To know how frightened and displaced they are now, it pains me lot. It’s always easy to distance ourselves from ‘the news’, until the news is about your relatives, people you care about a lot.

Two weeks ago i was still chatting with my friend Adib when i would come in november, also to help planting trees in his amazing native forest project next to the Beirut river. Now he ‘s telling me they moved to the family house in the mountains to be ‘safe’.

Adib in his the other forest in Beirut (photo: Dalia Khamissy)

TURIN - SALONE DEL GUSTO/TERRA MADRE

The Saudi stand at Terra Madre, Salone del gusto, bought some beautiful light roasted arabic coffee with a amber colour

Last week i was few days in Turin, at the biannual Slowfood fair Salone del gusto and Terra Madre, with my sweet people from delicious. magazine. There is nothing better than beautiful Turin in the fall, with the warm sun still out, a light haze over the river Po, the mountains in the backdrop, indian summer at it’s best. We were cycling the long streets to Parco Dora, and enjoying the multitude of flavours day and night.
Celebrating biodiversity, food culture and the fight for a better food system is just so inspiring. I have been coming to Salone del Gusto for years, and while it’s still interesting, somehow i feel the focus is now more on Italian food culture, at least at the fair itself. The Terra Madre section was really small. Still some amazing discoveries to share: a powder of date, almond, fig, raisins from the south of Morocco, to mix with milk to make a drink. The big beautiful onions of Cetara, amazing capers from Sicily and dried crunchy salty fava beans, fantastic coratino olive oil from Puglia and so on and on. Enough to fill up our empty suitcase.

So many different kinds of tomato!

Also there was a beautiful sweet paprika powder, coarsely milled from Italian sweet peppers from Puglia. A super intense paprika powder!

And that takes me to this recipe.

I was longing for Lebanese comfort food, like the red mujardara from the south of Lebanon, cooked with red almost blackend onions. So that’s what i did. And adding roasted pumpkin and bitter endives or chicoria: the Turin/Piemonte influence of autumn bitter vegetables. Love a little bitterness. The Madama Christina market was full of the catalogna, puntarelle and radicchio. And unripe special kaki, so crunchy so tasty. That market, if you are visiting Turin, put it on your list, it’s a must!

the special kaki with hints of vanilla

Conclusion this is a perfect autumn dish bringing in some comfort in difficult times, with golden onions, hearty lentils, sweet pumpkin and bitter veg. So delicious! Have a go at it

LENTIL STEW WITH ONIONS aka SOUTHERN LEBANESE RED MUJARDARA
with garlicky pumpkin and bitter veg