Potato-Lentil Stew

Second week back. The rhythm is returning the way rhythms do—not easily, but with the logic of repetition. Get up at five-forty-five, feed Liam, pack the bag, drop him at my mother's, drive to work, do the work, pick up Liam on the way home, come home, make dinner, sleep. The schedule has a structure that I find actually clarifying after five months of shapeless days. I know where I'm supposed to be and when. There's comfort in that even when the actual being-there is hard.

The floor is adjusting to me being back, and I'm adjusting to the floor. There's a new patient I picked up on Tuesday—sixty-four, lung cancer, a man named Ray who has a flat Boston accent so thick it sounds like a parody but isn't, who worked in construction for thirty-five years and has opinions about the Big Dig that I've now heard twice and will hear again. He reminds me of half the men in my father's generation in this neighborhood. I gave him extra blankets and he said "that's very decent of you, sweetheart" and didn't mean it dismissively and I didn't take it dismissively and we understood each other.

August in the kitchen means corn. I've been buying it from the stand on East Broadway twice a week and doing every version I know—grilled, roasted, in soup, in a salsa that goes on everything. On Sunday I made a corn chowder that was the exact version I wanted, the right balance of sweet corn and cream and a little smokiness from the bacon, and I ate it for lunch three days and each day it was better than the day before. This is the reason to cook: the thing that improves as it sits and waits.

The corn chowder I described is August food, stand-on-East-Broadway food — and I’ll share that recipe before summer is gone. But what I keep coming back to is the principle behind it: the pot you make on Sunday that earns its keep through the week, that rewards you more the second and third day than the first. This potato-lentil stew is built exactly that way. It’s thick and savory and unfussy, the kind of thing that asks very little of you on a Tuesday evening when you’ve already given most of yourself elsewhere, and then quietly improves overnight while you sleep.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 1/2 cups green or brown lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, with juices
6 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
2 cups baby spinach or chopped kale
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Fresh parsley, chopped, for serving

Instructions

Build the base. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, carrots, and celery and cook another 3 minutes, until fragrant.
Bloom the spices. Stir in the cumin, smoked paprika, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until the spices are fragrant and lightly toasted.
Add the lentils and potatoes. Pour in the broth and diced tomatoes with their juices. Add the rinsed lentils and cubed potatoes. Stir to combine and bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat.
Simmer until tender. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover partially, and simmer for 25—30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are fully tender and the potatoes are soft but still holding their shape. If the stew thickens too much, add broth or water 1/4 cup at a time.
Finish with greens and vinegar. Stir in the spinach or kale and cook just until wilted, 2—3 minutes. Add the red wine vinegar, then taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. The vinegar brightens the whole pot — don’t skip it.
Rest and serve. Let the stew sit off the heat for 5 minutes before ladling into bowls. Top with fresh parsley. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days; the flavor deepens considerably by day two.

Nutrition (per serving)

Potato-Lentil Stew — The Kind of Thing That Gets Better While It Waits