Lentils

As a child, the thought of eating a vegetable was nauseating. No matter what type of vegetable was placed in front of me, it would still be left on the plate or it would mysteriously end up in our dog's mouth. However, there was one vegetable that was able to bypass my distaste for these photosynthetic beings. The vegetable that would become a significant part of my diet is known as Lens culinaris, or lentils. Lentils fascinated me as a child due to the numerous colors that lentils had. My mother's kitchen cabinet contained lentils of various colors which ranged from red, black, tan and green. I loved the days when my mother decided to cook lentils because the process of how she made them intrigued me. She would go into the pantry and collect four bags of different colored lentils and pour them all in a big pot. She would then pour water over them and place the pot on the stove and put a class cover on top. While she waited for the water to cook the lentils I would grab a chair, place it in front of the stove, stand on top of the seat and watch the transformation of these hard, dried seeds into a soft, edible delight. The first time my mother gave me lentils I was reluctant to try it but as my mouth tasted this delicacy, my eyes suddenly widened and there was a huge grin across my face. My love of lentils allowed my mother to add, and hide, other vegetables into my bowls of lentils. She began to include carrots, onions, celery and tomatoes. Slowly I began to love vegetables and wondered why I disliked them in the first place. Lentils stand out as a food that brings back pleasant, nostalgic memories due to the fact that it sparked an interest in cooking with my mother. I wanted to learn how to cook lentils by myself and she taught me how to prepare them. It was a long process which resulted in me burning and ruining a lot of lentils but, I was able to create a batch of lentils without my mother's assistance. While I do not cook lentils with my mother anymore we have, over the past numerous years, cooked other meals together. I am always excited to come back from college so that my mother can introduce me to other culinary projects.