🍏 Meal of the Departed

Ritual: Grief, Ancestral Honor, Memory

🥣 Simple Root and Lentil Stew

Ingredients:

1 cup dry brown or green lentils

2 carrots, chopped

1 small parsnip or turnip, diced

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, optional

1 tsp olive oil

Salt to taste

6 cups water or light broth

Instructions:

In a large pot, sauté onion (and garlic if using) in olive oil until soft.

Add root vegetables, lentils, and water.

Simmer 35–40 minutes until tender.

Add salt gently. Stir only once.

Serve warm, without garnish. Let it be plain. Let it be honest.

🍞 Unleavened Flatbread

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat or spelt flour

½ tsp salt

½ cup warm water

Instructions:

Mix ingredients into dough.

Form 2–4 small rounds.

Cook on a dry skillet — no oil, no leavening.

Serve wrapped in cloth.

Break with hands. Offer first piece in silence to the space that is missing.

🍎 Fruit on the Altar or Shared Plate

Suggestions:

Whole apple, pear, fig, or grapes

One piece for the departed

One piece for each guest

Instructions:

Place fruit on a central plate or altar

Before eating, each guest speaks the name of someone they miss

Touch the fruit, but do not eat it until after stew and bread

🌿 Rosemary + Mint Tea

Ingredients:

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried mint

2 cups hot water

Instructions:

Steep herbs in silence for 5–7 minutes.

Pour into small, undecorated cups.

Hold with both hands. Sip slowly. This is remembrance.

🕊️ Eden Notes:

Leave one place empty at the table — for the one who is gone

Before eating, speak a name aloud

No sugar. No spice. No laughter. This is a meal of stillness and soul

After the meal, each guest may write one memory and leave it under the plate