Recipe: Corn and Lentil Succotash

Recipe Source: Brigsten, Frank.  Bon Appetit vol. 49 no. 11 p. 198, November 2004

You nice folks are going to think that I must be the world's single most disorganized cook.  I have to admit that you probably wouldn't be far from wrong, at least over the past week or so.  Every time I went to cook a dish I found I was missing an ingredient - either something that I was sure I had, or something I'd just passed over in the store.  That's certainly the case with this recipe.  It was intended to be a Black-Eyed Pea Succotash, and I was very confident that I had black-eyed peas in my possession.  In my defense, I did look at the pulse section of my local Whole Foods just to be on the safe side, but they hadn't any.  That's fine, I said to myself as I stalked away from the aisle, cursing.  I have plenty at home.  Right?  Not so much.  If I have them, I cannot find them.  I'm sure they'll turn up again sometime when I least need them, like when I'm looking for something like pasta. 

I did have one type of pulse.  I had lentils.  I had an absolute boatload of lentils.  I'd bought them for that event I did back in September, when I'd planned to make a Byzantine lentil dish but had to scrap it when it didn't scale up well.  I'd been enthusiastic about the lentil dish because I got the lentils at an absolutely dirt cheap price.  I decided to go ahead and use lentils for this dish instead, despite it turning from an American Southern type of dish to a more Middle Eastern Fusion type of dish.  Oh well.  The lentils actually gave this a really tasty flavor and (I felt) really brightened up this dish.  It makes an absolute ton, but you can certainly save it and eat more of it later in the week.

I did make a few other changes as well.  I didn't have "hot sauce" - I suspect my husband hid his so he'd have some for himself.  I used a Thai hot chile paste and accidentally poured more of it than I needed to into the dish.  I didn't have creole mustard.  I had horseradish mustard.  I also didn't bother measuring the quantities of peppers, figuring that when it comes to raw vegetables more is really unlikely to hurt. 

Corn and Lentil Succotash (serves 10; approx. $0.69/serving)

6 cups water

1 cup red lentils

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons horseradish mustard

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 cup chile sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil

16 ounces frozen corn, thawed and brought to room temperature

1 red onion, minced

4 scallions, thinly sliced

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

Equipment:

• Saucepan
• Colander
• Small bowl
• Whisk

1. Bring the water and salt to a boil.
2. Add the lentils and bay leaf.  Return to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer 35 minutes.
4. Drain.  Remove the bay leaf. 
5. Whisk the vinegar, honey, chile sauce and mustard together in the small bowl.  Set aside. 
6. Mix the corn, onion, scallion and bell peppers together in the serving bowl.
7. Stir in the lentils.
8. Add the dressing from the small bowl and toss well to coat. 
9. Serve. 

Comments

[arundati]

thanks for stopping over at Escapades and leaving me a comment!! first time here... will go back to explore a bit....

[Darius T. Williams]

I love this succotash - looks great!

-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com

[mycookinghut]

This is a great recipe!!.. I love it!

[Fearless Kitchen]

Thanks! It was a bit different from what we'd usually eat, but we both really enjoyed it.