Spicy lentils are a work in progress. It was the first time making this dish which we were adapting from a NYTimes recipe. The critique given by our daughter was that we had not used enough oil to bloom the spices properly so that they tasted grainy and raw. Tough crowd here.

This is the basic recipe for the spicy lentils.

So of course we were cutting back on the oil using only 1 tablespoon and some olive oil spray. We were not sure whether a whole tablespoon of smoked paprika would be too much so we used 1/2 tablespoon of regular paprika and 1/2 tablespoon of smoked. Rather than just water we used vegetable stock. We added some soy sauce for more umami and a little ketchup for sweetness. Oh, and about 1/3 cup chopped up onion at the beginning.

I think what saved the dinner was serving the lentils with rice and kale. The additional flavors kind of rounded the whole thing out. I think we will make this again using more oil, all smoked paprika, and more hot spiciness in some form.