Kitchen & Bar

On this phone

How to get around

The bar under the name is the map. Swipe it sideways if a destination sits off-screen. On Tonight, the button pinned to the bottom cooks the lead dish.

  1. Tonight — What you can cook first, plus drinks that fit the same shelf.

  2. This week — Five dinners from the shelf, urgent things cooked first.

  3. Shelf — Edit what you actually own.

  4. Written methods — Every dish and drink with a method somebody wrote out.

  5. The pantry — Start from one ingredient: what it does, and everything built on it.

  6. Out of it — What to use instead, judged by the job the missing thing was doing.

  7. Photo review — Review a demo shelf photo and confirm every item before adding it.

  8. Flavor Lab — Pairings with a track record: classic matches and the mixology behind them.

  9. Wild cards — Combinations with no tradition behind them, only shared aroma notes.

  10. Send to Occasion OS — Prepare confirmed shelf availability for Occasion OS.

  11. The field — The gap this layer owns.

Keep it on the home screen

  1. iPhone — tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
  2. Android — open the browser menu, then Install app or Add to Home screen.

After that it opens as Kitchen & Bar, not a browser tab. Inventory stays on this device.

Substitutions · 21 dishes here use it

Out of lentils

The fast legume — no soaking, thirty minutes at most. Brown and green hold their shape for a salad; red collapse into a thickener, and choosing wrong is why lentil dishes turn to sludge.

Everything below is judged against that job. A swap that covers it is a swap; one that only looks similar is not.

What to reach for

Instead · 1

split peas

one for one

What it gets you
A dry legume that cooks in the same window without soaking and collapses into a soup the same way.
What it costs you
Shape. Split peas dissolve entirely, so anything that wanted lentils to stay whole is out.

Instead · 2

canned brown or green lentils

two cans per cup dry

What it gets you
The same thing in ten minutes instead of thirty.
What it costs you
Firmness and seasoning control. They arrive soft, so they go in at the end.

Instead · 3

bulgur, for a salad

one for one

What it gets you
A chewy, nutty base that dresses well and sits in the same bowls.
What it costs you
The protein and the earthiness. This is a grain doing a legume's job.

Where the swap will be tasted · 2

These need it and are short enough that nothing hides: 4 required ingredients or fewer, which makes lentils a quarter of what is in the pan. Make the swap a decision rather than a repair.

Check what else is in the pan

The company lentils keeps in this library, counted off required ingredients. A swap that argues with the top two is the wrong swap, whatever a chart says.

What to make with lentilsRank what I can actually cookAll substitutions