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is often served in late March for Norooz, the Persian new year. With beans, vegetables, noodles, and yogurt, it is a meal in itself. If you can’t find fava beans, use limas. Start this recipe the night before to soak the chickpeas, kidneys beans, and fava beans. Boil them in a pot with four cups of water for one minute, then turn off the heat and add a splash of apple cider vinegar. Cover the pot and let them soak overnight.

Serves 6 to 8

½ cup chickpeas, soaked overnight in water to cover

¼ cup kidney beans, soaked overnight in water to cover

½ cup dried fava beans, soaked overnight in water to cover, or 1½ cups frozen lima beans

3 yellow onions

7 tablespoons olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ cup dried lentils

14 cups vegetable or chicken stock

Salt

1 large handful fresh mint leaves, torn into pieces

6 ounces thin egg noodles or linguine, broken into thirds

1 bunch leafy greens, stemmed, and coarsely chopped

¼ cup fresh dill leaves, minced

½ cup fresh cilantro, minced

½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced

2 cups plain yogurt

Dice 1 of the onions. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat and add 4 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the onion and sauté until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, kidney beans, and fava beans, and add them to the onion along with 4 of the minced cloves of garlic, the turmeric, and lentils. Sauté for 1 minute, then add the stock and bring to a boil. Boil the beans, covered, for 1 hour. Tilt the lid so the pot is partially covered and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1½ hours. Season with salt.

Slice the remaining 2 onions into thin half moons. Heat a sauté pan over high heat and add the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onions and fry, stirring frequently, until the onions are brown and caramelized. Add the remaining garlic and the mint and sauté for 1 minute. Season with salt and set aside.

Add the noodles to the soup and cook until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. When the noodles are almost done, add the leafy greens and the fresh herbs and cook for 2 minutes.

Serve with a large dollop of yogurt and a few tablespoons of the sautéed onion mixture.

Foraging: Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Almost any food in the world is available to us today, but as we wean ourselves from an economy based on cheap fossil fuels, the price of exotic fare will increase, and locally foraged foods may play a bigger role in our diets. Before the development of agriculture, we were all hunter-gatherers, and, happily, the natural world is still brimming with sustenance.

Contrary to what you might think, you don’t have to go to the woods to find wild edibles. In the last few years I’ve spent time exploring the rural and urban outdoors with knowledgeable foragers, often in New York City, where a favorite haunt of foragers is Manhattan’s Central Park! If we can find food in the middle of this nation’s most densely populated city, then imagine how much more the rest of the country has to offer. Some of the wild foraged foods I’ve found, in Manhattan as well as other parts of the country, include:

• Apples

• Bay leaves

• Black walnuts

• Blackberries

• Blueberries

• Calendula

• Chanterelle mushrooms

• Chickweed

• Chives

• Daylilies

• Elderberries

• Epazote

• Garlic mustard

• Ginkgo nuts

• Hawthorn berries

• June berries

• Lamb’s quarters

• Mint

• Mulberries

• Nettles

• Persimmons

• Quince

• Ramps (wild leeks)

• Raspberries

• Sassafras

• Shiso

• Sumac

Foraging reminds us of the vitality of our environment. Not only do animals live in green spaces, but so do countless flowers, plants, and trees that are reliable sources of food. And it’s easy to forget, but most medicines were originally derived from plants.

In some situations, it’s easy to identify what’s edible, like when walking in Maine surrounded by wild blueberries. Hunting wild mushrooms and deciding which ones are safe to eat, however, is a skill that can take years to learn. On your own,