I haven’t been writing Meatless Mondays posts much anymore because since my son became a vegetarian, I’m cooking vegetarian meals all days of the week (although I still cook meat for myself and my husband sometimes). However, today it seemed appropriate.

Last week I had a post about the 10 special holiday meals I had in the week between Saturday, February 14 and Friday, February 20 (for details, see my post https://blissfullu.com/2026/02/24/a-week-of-holiday-bliss-culinary-and-cultural-journeys/). I thought I had exhausted all the February celebrations, but it turned out I was wrong. There was one last February holiday to acknowledge.

On Wednesday, February 25, my son informed me that it was George Harrison’s birthday. Most contemporary music is not interesting to my son and many of his friends. One of my son’s best friends believes George Harrison is the #1 musician ever, and his is a favorite for my son as well. So he asked if we could extend our holiday cook-a-thon and make dal for dinner in honor of George Harrison.

If you aren’t familiar with Indian cooking, dal is a food that is kind of like the term casserole in US cooking…that is, there are a million different recipes and almost any savory food might show up in them. But generally, the backbone of dal is some kind of legume or pulse (beans, peas, lentils, and such). Lentils are my emergency vegetarian protein that I keep regularly in my pantry, so I can always cook up some kind of dal with little notice. So I said sure, we can have dal for dinner.

As I’ve long said, I’m kind of a pirate in the kitchen (see https://blissfullu.com/2020/07/25/a-pirate-in-the-kitchen/). I use recipes as guidelines more than as formulas (except for baking or other recipes that involve a chemical reaction so you really need the right proportion of correct ingredients for things to work out properly). So I used this recipe from one of my favorite cooking sites for inspiration: https://www.seriouseats.com/toor-dal-recipe-8737547.

Of course, I didn’t have the main ingredient and so I substituted organic red lentils I got from our Indian grocery store. I didn’t have at least half of the spices, but used the ones I had. The recipe used a yellow onion, boiled in the liquids; I used a red onion and sauteed it before adding anything else. The recipe used a plum tomato, whereas I used fire roasted San Marzano tomatoes. I didn’t have any fresh curry leaves or cilantro, but I chopped up some lovely fresh rainbow chard I had gotten from our local farmers market that Saturday. And we like things spicy, so I added a couple of chili peppers. And when it comes to spice amount, forget about measurements. I add some, taste it, and add more if I think it needs it. She served hers over white rice; ours was accompanied by organic brown basmati rice I cooked in the Instant Pot.

So in the end, it bares little resemblance to the recipe from which it came.

But it was great for us. It was simple, delicious, and nutrious. It seemed appropriate for George Harrison, who when I was a girl during the height of their popularity was known as “the quiet Beatle.” Dal is unpretentious but has tons of creative adaptations and may be the single dish besides rice that is eaten most often and most widely in India.

The next day I was trying to make a quick lunch because I had to get to school to teach just the afternoon classes. So I came up with something I called “the Harrison burger.”

It starts with half of a toasted English muffin (referencing Harrison’s place of birth). On top of that I spread a few tablespoons of our dal. Then on top, I put one of Trader Joe’s Vegetable Masala Burgers that I air fried.

I try not to eat much processed food, but I do like these. The main ingredient is potatoes, but it has a lot of bits of different vegetables in it. Between that and the dal, the sandwich had at least ten different vegetables! And it was tasty.

So that is my own creation in honor of the late great George Harrison. And we liked it enough that I don’t think we will wait until his next birthday to have it again.