lentils

And a happy Meatless Monday to you all as well! Bet you don't know any good recipes with lentils off the top of your head, which is why we're bringing you our five favorites for dinner tonight. You thought burgers were off the menu tonight? Wrong, we've got Mark Bittman's recipe. We've got Marcus Samuelsson's lentil soup recipe. We've got the national comfort food of Egypt and an Italian sausage-spiked soup for those only kind of observing Meatless Monday. Hey, it's all progress.

This meal will stay down more or less no matter what's wrong with you. It's vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, pretty much totally hypoallergenic and made of stuff your body wants to hang onto — easily digestible protein in the form of skinless lentils made even more easy to digest by boiling it into oblivion, and nice soft rice. Got the flu? Eat up, you'll need your strength.

This Egyptian classic is a carb-on-carb delight that includes all of our favorites staples: rice, lentils, chickpeas and macaroni. Together. Yes, that's right. If you thought it couldn't get any better than Japan's Great Carb Gift to Mankind, it just did, thanks to Egypt.