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TO VARY IT: It is worth tracking down soft wheat berries here, as hard wheat berries are more chewy and typically need longer to cook. This dish is also delicious when using about 2½ cups cooked spelt or Kamut berries (see cooking instructions).

Greek Egg and Lemon Soup with Chicken and Brown Rice

Classic avgolemono—a delicious, velvety swirl of lemon and eggs—is used in myriad ways in Greece: as a tangy finish for soups, braised vegetables, and stuffed grape leaves, or to lighten rich, meaty stews made with lamb or pork. According to Aglaia Kremezi, an authority on Mediterranean food, this characteristic sauce was probably introduced to fifteenth-century Greece by Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution in Spain. Mine is a light silky soup. Like my purist mom, I don’t use cornstarch to give the soup more body—only eggs and a good whisking. SERVES 4

SOUP

1 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast half (about 1 pound)

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

½ cup thinly sliced green onions (about 3)

1 clove garlic, lightly crushed

½ recipe parboiled short-grain brown rice (about 1¼ cups cooked)

AVGOLEMONO, AND TO FINISH

2 or 3 lemons

2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

½ cup finely chopped fresh dill or flat-leaf parsley

1 Season the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Bring the chicken, broth, green onions, and garlic to a boil in a large saucepan, covered. Decrease the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until the chicken breast is no longer pink in the center, 20 to 25 minutes.

2 Using tongs, transfer the chicken breast to a cutting board and set aside to cool a bit. Add the rice, return to a simmer, cover, and cook until the rice is tender, about 10 minutes.

3 Meanwhile, juice the lemons. Measure ¼ cup juice and set it aside in a small bowl. Set 2 more tablespoons aside in a separate little bowl. Reserve the remaining lemon juice for serving at the table. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin of the breast and discard. Pull the meat off the bones and shred it.

4 When the rice is ready, make the avgolemono. In a medium nonreactive heatproof bowl, beat the egg whites vigorously with a large balloon whisk until frothy and multiplied in volume several times, about 2 minutes. Continuing to whisk vigorously, add the yolks, then slowly pour in the ¼ cup lemon juice. Now the egg mixture should have lots of body and a light yellow color. Gradually pour 1 ladleful of the hot chicken broth into the egg mixture, whisking all the while, to temper it. Add a second ladleful of broth in the same way.

5 To finish, slowly pour the egg-broth mixture back into the soup, whisking continuously. Return the chicken to the pot and add ¼ cup of the dill. Switch to a wooden spoon and very gently heat for 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring all along—do not bring the soup to a boil or the eggs will curdle. There will now be a thick, foamy layer on top of the soup. It will subside as you serve, while adding a sublime silky texture. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust. Add 1 or 2 more tablespoons of the remaining lemon juice to taste.

6 Ladle the soup into deep plates or bowls. Garnish each serving with some of the remaining fresh dill and freshly ground pepper, and serve with more lemon juice on the side.

Barley-Lentil Stew with Mushrooms, Crisped Prosciutto, and Dill

In the waning days of summer—when the nights come early and you can smell the fall moving in—this is the stew I cobble together in my kitchen. It is light, yet substantial enough to carry me comfortably through those first crisp evenings. A jumble of grains, legumes, and vegetables, this stew also connects me to my roots in the Mediterranean, where barley has been served since antiquity. Hulled whole grain barley adds texture, pearl barley comforting starchiness.

Instead of the two kinds of barley, you may use ½ cup of a single type, whatever you have on hand. Widely available brown lentils can be used, however, they turn