Food, or...?

As I mentioned previously, this weekend I cooked a Weight Watchers recipe called "Indian Vegetable & Lentil Stew." It has these ingredients:

1/2 cup yellow lentils (I used red lentils)
1 serrano chile, diced (including seeds)
1 pkg frozen brussels sprouts
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
1 T canola oil
2 tsp (I think?) mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 T chopped cilantro
lemon juice (1 T I think?)

You cook the lentils and mash or blend them up. Meanwhile, you cook the mustard seeds in the oil (heat the oil, put the seeds in, cover it with a lid, and wait until the popping subsides), then add the garlic and serrano chili, then the diced tomatoes, some water, and the sprouts, and then, once the sprouts are done, the mashed lentils. Then you remove it from heat and add the cilantro and lemon juice.

I ran into a little snag. When I cooked the mustard seeds, they didn't start popping very readily, so I jacked up the heat (thinking it might be needed because the pan was so large). So the mustard seeds burned and turned black. Then I put in the hot chile and garlic, and, predictably, the house began to fill up with toxic smoke. It's always great when your cooking can be mistaken for chemical warfare.

The finished product looked a bit gruesome:


But I'm brave, so I had a tiny bowl to taste. It actually tasted fabulous! It's really spicy, which is surprising for WW. I immediately had a big bowl of it for dinner.