More Quiche for Special Friends

Meaning you. Then it's back to salad! (Although we do have soup today.)

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS TO SHARE: You can now read The Department of Salad: Official Bulletin in the new Substack app for iPhone.

With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.

The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.

I ALSO HAVE EXCITING QUICHE TO SHARE. I had assumed that as a salad crowd you’d find one quiche Lorraine sufficient. Apparently I was wrong. I got more than a few notes from readers saying to me: Emily! Nunn! Where is the fetching puffy quiche from this issue?

I get it. Quiche Lorraine is delicious. And while choux pastry makes my heart sing, some of you simply are not moved by the idea of using it for quiche. But this is not about my heart. It’s about yours. And even though I, personally, feel that these quiches are almost too similar to be flying different flags, I have that second, more robust one for you today, a man-size pie I’ve decided to call the D.O.S. Tall Boy QL™️. I feel like it’s going to take the nation by storm, so I’m trademarking it. (I am not really trademarking it.)

Bring out your bacon!

In fact, I’m dedicated to giving you special prizes as a sincere thank you for being supporters of the Department of Salad. And it is with this fondness brimming over in my heart that I have decided just this minute that you must also have my back-pocket lentil soup, too. It’s the one I’ve been making for 15 years, the one I’ve been most faithful to. 

It will help you keep any job in which making the lentil soup is one of your duties. I named it Beauty Soup because it is full of ingredients—carrots, spinach, garlic, and onions—that are supposed to be good for one’s complexion. At its most basic, it’s the perfect, always warming, satisfying vegetarian treat that makes me wonder why I don’t make a batch every week.

And yet every time I make it lately I add some new flair—some herbs I have in the fridge, a couple of chopped potatoes, chopped pancetta or bacon in the bottom of the pot to start it off (which, of course, you should only do if you are not feeding it to vegetarian friends), a heel of Parmesan to simmer along with it all to give it an extra flavor dimension. And so should you.