Lentil

If you have cooked lamb, beef, or turkey on hand, use it instead of the chicken.

Start with hearts of romaine topped with balsamic dressing and diced feta cheese, and pass whole grain bread. Have chocolate cupcakes afterward.

For easier crumbling, chill the cheese before adding it to the salad. The French lentils called for here are sold at specialty foods stores; regular brown lentils can be used, and the cooking time is about the same.

Some soups genuinely do inspire a devotion akin to love, and this is one of them. In the cold of winter, when Gourmet editors ponder the matter of what soup to cook up in a steamy Saturday morning kitchen to provide comfort all weekend long, they decide with remarkable frequency to make the following one. Those in the know also add about a pound of smoked sausage; even the best can be made better.

Reflecting the cuisines of Israel and the surrounding Mediterranean Middle Eastern countries, this meatless stew is seasoned with mint and lemon. Serve it with sesame seed rolls and a tomato and cucumber salad; have pistachio ice cream for dessert.

Virginia Flesher of Charleston, West Virginia, writes: "Last spring I attended my oldest grandson's college graduation in New York. The evening before the ceremony, the entire family dined at Town in the Chambers Hotel. I can still remember chef Geoffrey Zakarian's superb lentil soup."

Thakkali Rasam We liked this soup on its own, but in India it is frequently served over rice and topped with a spoonful of warm ghee.

To make this a vegetarian chili, use an additional eight ounces of lentils instead of the pound of ground beef.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This is made with homemade pasta at the inn. Our easy alternative uses cooked lasagne noodles cut into squares. From the Inn at Perry Cabin, St. Michaels, Maryland. Watch how to make your own pasta for ravioli with our hands-on streaming video demonstration.

I use a small, plump, shrewdly marketed black lentil dubbed "beluga" for this soup, but you can use dark green French lentils or flat olive-green ones, or you can try other pulses such as split peas — green, orange, or gold. Just be prepared to adjust the amount of stock or water. Whole cumin and black peppercorns, crushed just before you add them to the soup, flavor it boldly. I have served this soup three different ways — straight from the pot, irregularly mashed in a mortar, and fully puréed in a blender or processor. Each method produces a different texture and character, and I like all three.