New dishes, cheap dishes

Inspired by the thread below on low-cost family cooking strategies, I decided to try a couple of simple lentil recipes today, cooking enough to store for the week ahead (we Orthodoxes are in the Dormition fast now through the middle of August, so no meat or dairy for us). I pulled off the shelf Mark Bittman's excellent "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" (available through his fantastic NYT blogsite -- and let me say that you will not find a more useful general cookbook for the beginning cook than Bittman's "How to Cook Everything," also available through the site). There's a section on legumes, of course, and I decided to try his basic dal recipe (dal is an Indian lentil soup; there are countless variations on it). I also picked his braised lentils with Moroccan spices recipe.

This required a trip to Central Market, which is not a bargain place to shop normally. But they have a great bulk beans and spices section. I got everything I needed -- lentils, cardamom pods, turmeric, cinnamon, bay leaves, cumin, mustard seeds -- for very little money. I don't have my receipt in front of me, but it was probably seven bucks. I bought fresh garlic and onions too, and some store-brand vegetable broth. The whole thing came to $10, I'd say. We had some fresh ginger at home, and cloves too. And salt, of course. I put a dried ancho we had laying around in the dal. That was all I needed for my two lentil dishes -- and I doubled the recipe of the dal, too.

They were both very easy to prepare; the most labor-intensive thing was chopping the onions for the Moroccan dish. They both sat on low heat, stewing until the lentils were cooked -- about an hour for each. And they were fantastic (especially the dal, which I jacked up with a little butter; only later did I realize we were fasting from dairy too). Had them over rice. Oh, I bought a bunch of fresh cilantro for 99 cents to add to the top. I had a hearty dinner tonight, and was able to put enough of these spicy, flavorful lentil dishes up to make seven or eight more full meals.

I couldn't put a precise cost on these meals, because we already had rice at home, and a couple of the other ingredients. But $2 per meal is probably a good ballpark figure, and maybe even a little high. And cooking so much in advance today, when I had time, means I'll be able to eat inexpensively and well through much of next week. I dunno, it was a small thing, cooking these lentil dishes tonight, but I feel good about having taken the time to do what we were talking about doing in that earlier thread, and cooking cheaply and thoughtfully. So, thanks again for all your advice.