Friends, bonjour from Montreal!

I am here with two of my kids, of course, for a hockey tournament, but with goals that mostly concern food, namely crepes and bagels, both of which we've found and devoured. Our hotel is located in Chinatown, and we arrived Thursday evening as nearly everything was closing, but found a spot that kindly took us in. Bellies full of dumplings, orange chicken, and spring rolls, the kids were thrilled.

This week, I made a soup I hadn't made in ages. It's made from mostly pantry items — chickpeas, red lentils, canned crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, spices — and comes together very quickly. I was not sure my children would like it, but they all LOVED it, and three of them took leftovers to school for lunch the next day.

I made another batch immediately to ensure their enthusiasm wasn't a fluke, and again they gobbled it up. Can I suggest you make a batch of these slow cooker chickpeas or these stovetop chickpeas today? And the soup tomorrow? You, of course, can use canned chickpeas, but from-scratch cooked chickpeas are especially good here, and you can use their flavorful cooking liquid in the soup. The soup is so, so delicious, and I hope you all find time to make it soon.

This curried chickpea and lentil soup is a recipe that can be adapted to taste and to what you have in your pantry. I've added chickpeas, omitted the greens, used vinegar in place of the lemon juice, and it always turns out well. Most important, it comes together alarmingly quickly but has a simmered-all-day-kind-of taste. // alexandracooks.com

Chickpea & Red Lentil Soup

PS: The giant sandwich roll experiments continue. A few of you made the recipe and emailed me your photos and thoughts, which were so helpful. This week, I made the rolls using King Arthur bread flour — I had been using this Petra 0102 flour, which I love for bread and pizza — and I rewrote the recipe to make one loaf, which might be more practical for most people. Here's a crumb shot of the loaf made with KA bread flour:

And I made another giant sandwich with roasted red peppers, basil pesto, whipped ricotta, and greens.

I'm hoping to post the recipe to the blog this week, but if you want to give it a go, find it here: Giant Sandwich Roll

Review of the Week

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

"Just made these and they are possibly the most delicious cookies I’ve ever had. Trouble 😉"

— Beth

5 Chocolatey Recipes to Bake This Weekend

If I were home this Valentine's Day Weekend, I would have baked something chocolatey, likely brownies, or these Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies, an old favorite recipe I've simplified in recent years to use melted butter, which allows them to come together in one bowl 🎉