The ingredients are basic, but the final product is anything but: onion and garlic powder, chopped celery, onion, carrots, cucumber, and tomato, crushed garlic, lentils, cumin, miso, mayonnaise, sriracha, and wood chips.

Merrill pours the rinsed lentils into a pot.

Onion, powder, garlic powder, and cumin scent the lentils as they soak.

A twenty-minute soak is all these lentils need before cooking.

Celery, carrots, garlic, and just-translucent onions form the flavor pedestal on which the salad will sit.

Those cumin-scented soaked lentils get drained and added to the pot of sauteed vegetables.

Spread on baking sheets to cool, this salad already looks good enough to eat.

Soaking wood chips before use keeps them from burning during the smoking process. (The tree that overhangs Amanda's deck is molting, hence that little green seed.)

Wrap the soaked wood chips in heavy-duty foil, then pierce the packet so the aromatic smoke can get out.

Smoking the lentils is a genius trick -- we couldn't stop smelling them when they came out of the grill.

Back in the kitchen, Merill mixes together the dressing. First up: sriracha.

Miso joins the party next, sweet and salty and funky.

And mayonnaise brings it all together into a spreadable, complex sauce.

Scrape the smoked and unsmoked cooled lentils into a bowl -- it's almost time to eat.

NBrush recommends adding the dressing in stages so you can taste as you go.

We used barely half of the mayonnaise mixture, but your mileage may vary.

The cucumber and tomato add crunch and brightness to the smoky, spicy salad.

Picnics, lunches, dinners: here's your go-to salad.

Just eggs, mayonnaise, scallions, soy sauce, smoky Lapsang Souchong tea, and a bevy of heady spices: cinnamon, anise, Szechuan peppercorns, and fennel.

The first step is familiar enough: make hardboiled eggs, but undercook them a bit as they'll be simmering more later.

This part is fun: with the back of a spoon, gently tap the eggs til their surfaces are a web of hairline cracks.

With the eggs cracked but intact, it's time to add the spices, soy sauce, and sugar.

Have you ever had Lapsang Souchong tea? It smells like a cross between peaty Scotch and a barbecue joint, but in a really good way!

The eggs simmer for half an hour, then soak in their liquid for overnight, or as long as you can. (We soaked ours for about six hours.)

And this is what you'll get: gorgeous, tea-stained eggs soaked through to the core.

We couldn't resist one more beauty shot: it's almost a shame to peel them!

The dressing is made from mayonnaise and the eggs' reduced steeping liquid. (No sense in wasting that flavor!)

Scallions join the party -- be sure to save some of them for garnish, as well.

After admiring our handsome eggs, we finally peeled and chopped them up. It had to happen!

Here they are, ready for a twirl in the dressing.

Serve on rice crackers. Eat. Repeat.