“Standardal” is my secret no-fail template of a soup that combines legumes with a high quality whole grain.

Here’s how Standardal fits into my eating scheme. I generally prepare a huge plateful of miscellaneous steamed veggies, about 500 grams (roughly a pound) of leafy greens such as baby bokchoy, broccoli rabe rapini, mustard greens, or cruciferous greens such broccoli and/or cabbage. On top of this I pour a cup of Standardal (typically chilled, straight out of the fridge).

Then I grind (using a coffee grinder) some seeds and/or nuts, and pour that on top of the Standardal layer. I use about 10 grams each of sesame seeds, pepitas, and sunflower seeds. This is roughly an ounce, and translates to about 170 calories of high quality fat and micro-nutrients. (Note: I take my obligatory flax seeds with my breakfast fruit bowl.) I’ve experimented with just Standardal and veggies, but it definitely tastes better with the ground seeds/nuts on top.

I also recommend grinding seeds alone, rather than nuts? Why? Because I find it more satisfying chewing the nuts by themselves; the seeds (e.g, sesame seeds) are too small to chew.

Notice that your heaping plate actually follows the healthy “food pyramid” (please note: this is not the USDA food pyramid, which is obsolete) – - the greens on the bottom, then the legumes, then the seeds/nuts topping the “pyramid” on your plate. This is a three-layered pyramid packed with nutritionally dense micronutrients (phytochemicals and minerals/trace elements), plus a “flexible” macronutient stack of protein, fat and carbohydrates.

I say “flexible” because you can control your caloric intake by decreasing/increasing the amount of food in each “layer.”

Here’s the Standardal recipe:

150 grams of Chana Dal

50 grams of Quinoa

150 grams of Onions (finely chopped)

20 grams of Garlic (finely chopped)

10 grams of Coriander

10 grams of Cumin

10 grams of Fenugreek

10 grams of Ginger

5 grams of Black Mustard Seed

2 grams of Black Pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground Turmeric

5 cups of water

You should grind the dry spices (except the Turmeric) right before you mix them, so you have a better flavor. The ginger can be cut into fine (1/8 inch) slices (to be thrown out of the soup later if you don’t like chewing on a huge piece of ginger) or you can chop it into very small pieces and eat it as part of the soup. I use my pressure cooker — I can have a meal ready in less than 12 minutes from start to finish.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can change the legumes and the grain (as well as the proportions), and it still works. I vary the legumes for every batch I make (i.e., chana dal, mung, urad, brown lentils, red lentils, adzuki, black-eyed peas etc.) as well as the grains (quinoa, millet, barley, brown rice are my preferences, in that order). I like to stick to 3 parts legume, 1 part grain as a starting point because it balances protein content with texture and taste.

BTW, a cup of the above recipe is 133 calories, with 5.6 grams of protein, 19.9 grams of carbohydrate, 1.9 grams of fat, and 4.6 grams of fiber (I excluded the macronutrient count contributed by the onion, garlic, ginger, and spices — the P.C.F.F. counts are just from the legume and the grain). The recipe makes 6 1/3 cups of soup.