Spring Cleaning (Snow Cordially Asked to Leave)

I peered out the window, fully prepared for clouds. I was even ready to accept drizzle. But what I found was so much more heinous, so fully obscene, I could nearly bear it. Snow. In mid-April. Oh, Iowa.

I seldom ventured outside that solemn Saturday. How could I? By some stroke of fate, what I found inside my cupboards suited me just fine. I managed to make lemonade out of a thoroughly lemony day, with the help of some errant lentils. Rummaging in my pantry, I found not one, not two, but three bags of lentils kicking about in the back. I wasn't really in the mood for soup. But what else does one do with the humble legume?

One makes hummus, it turns out.















I found a recipe on Epicurious for a simple lentil hummus, one made with all the makings of the traditional spread but replacing the chickpeas with lentils. Within minutes, my kitchen reeked of garlic and lemon and tahini, and the grayish sludge was dripping from all extremities. It's not exactly the most glamorous of processes, but the reward was sweet: Creamy, flavorful hummus with just a slightly different tang. It didn't bear that sandpapery texture so sadly endemic to lentils, nor did it have the stiffness of a (yawn) chickpea variety. It was, in short, the best of all (Middle Eastern) worlds.
















By the time the sky cleared on Sunday, my fingers had lost the pungent aroma. My pantry was one bag of lentils cleaner. My refrigerator bore the remnants of a dinner fit for a sultan. And, best of all, I think all that garlic scared away the snow.