It’s intriguing that I am inspired to cook specific dishes by a wide variety of stimuli. One recent example is a dinner featuring Indian Dals — lentils of various kinds. The impetus came from opening the main cabinet in our kitchen, which we do multiple times a day. Sitting in a prominent place, at eye level, is a jar of Toor Dal, also known as Split Pigeon Peas.

I had used them in a dish perhaps two years ago, but not since. Now they were staring me in the face with regularity. (Fortunately, these have very long shelf lives in their dry form.)

A quick examination of online recipes indicated that these were best when combined with another lentil. Moong Dal. As luck would have it, those were sitting on another shelf — in my wine cellar.

With some adaptations to eliminate certain herbs and spices which my wife wouldn’t like in the original recipe, I was able to put together a nutritious supper fairly easily, adding green beans for color and variety at the same time.