Member-only story
TIDE TALK — FOOD AROUND THE WORLD
A Dish of Superstition for New Year’s Day
When I was just a kid, I spent New Year’s Eve with my maternal grandparents while Mum and Dad enjoyed the party with their friends.
On New Year’s Day in the morning, we started watching the world-famous concert broadcasted from Vienna. Before the concert finished my parents arrived to pick me up.
But before we went home, we had lunch.
Grandma had already prepared the lentil soup.
In Hungary, the superstition is that you have to eat lentils on New Year’s Day so the year will be prosperous.
It doesn’t matter what kind of lentil you use or what dish you make. It can be a soup, salad, or casserole, but it has to be made of lentils.
So we finished lunch at my Grandparent’s place went home and had lentil soup again for dinner.
Then no lentils for the rest of the year.
It goes without saying that yesterday I also made the super easy lentil soup because I don’t want to give a chance not to have a prosperous year.
I soaked 2 cups of red lentils in the morning. Around 6 pm I sauteed some onion and added cumin seeds. After a couple of minutes, I added the lentils, some water, veggie broth, and bay…
