One of my favorite lines about food is in Brillat Savarin’s The Physiology of Taste: "The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity than the discovery of a new star."

That’s the way I feel about discovering any new food that I like, and the latest one on my list is one many of you may have never heard of. It’s called trahana.

Trahana is a wheat product that is eaten throughout Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. Traditionally it was a way to preserve milk for the winter, when production was always lower, by mixing it with wheat and drying it. There are many versions, some made with milk only (usually goat’s or sheep’s milk, this type is called sweet trahana), some with milk and yogurt (called sour trahana). In Greece there is even a lenten version made with vegetable pulp. Some trahana is made with flour, some with semolina, and some with bulgur. The ingredients are mixed to form a dough or a porridge, then spread out to dry (in the sun in the Mediterranean), and once dry and brittle broken up into a pebbly meal, which is easily reconstituted. It has a wonderful tart, grainy flavor and a comforting texture. 

Inspired by a very simple recipe for trahana made with bulgur, yogurt, and a mix of goat’s milk and cow’s milk, in Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new book Ikaria: Lessons on Food, Life, and Longevity from the Greek Island Where People Forget to Die, I made a few batches of sour trahana, and devote this week’s Recipes for Health to delicious and comforting soups and pilafs I made with the product.

I’ve been working with lentils. You’d think I’d run out of ideas but I never do; I love this legume and never tire of working on new recipes. 

One of my earliest food memories of being struck by the taste of a new food (in a good way) revolves around a lentil soup. I was about 8 years old, at a friend’s house for a play date. The friend was named Celia and I will forever remember her and her mother, not because Celia became a good friend – that may have been the only play date we ever had -- but because her mother served up cups of lentil soup for lunch. There were slices of frankfurter in the broth, and I remember the distinct flavor of bay leaf (another new flavor). It was the first thing I told my mother about when I went home; I wanted it again. 

I can’t remember whether or not my mother then went out and bought cans of Campbell’s Lentil Soup (she certainly didn’t make it). But when I began to cook I delved into lentils, and not just because they were cheap and I was vegetarian. It’s the distinctive, profound flavor of this small, easy to cook legume that has always had a hold on me. Their delicious broth is as comfortable with seasonings from every corner of the Mediterranean basin as it is with Indian or even Mexican spices. 

I made two new lentil salads this week, a simple lentil and tomato stew and a lentil and quinoa pilaf. I also made a wonderful new Greek phyllo pie filled with the leftovers of the lentil and tomato stew. All posting on Recipes for Health and NYTCooking the week of October 12, 2014.

These pilafs, grains, and lentils are an essential part of my autumnal repertoire: a big bowl of hearty and healthy nourishment is the perfect way to end these increasingly chilly and dark days. I absolutely recommend my Big Bowls online class for those interested in adding more zest and flair to their humble bowls!