Nutty, garlicky, peppery lentil salad

The other day my friend Rachel over at THE CRISPY COOK provided a
spicy lentil chili recipe that sounded great. It got me thinking about a lentil salad I used to make using a recipe I found in a Sonia Uvezian cookbook. I just had to make a batch.

Here are the acknowledgements and the recipe:

Sonia Uvezian
The Book of Salads: An International Collection of Recipes
Drawings by Wendy Wheeler
101 Productions, San Francisco


Lentil salad

(Serves 4)

1 quart water
2 tsp salt
1 cup lentils
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 scallions, finely chopped, including 2 inches of green tops
1 medium clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbs finely chopped parsley
6 Tbs olive oil or vegetable oil
2 1/2 Tbs red wine vinegar
Salt, freshly ground black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
2 hard-cooked eggs, cut crosswise in thin slices (optional)
1 small sweet onion, cut crosswise in thin slices and separated into rings
Parsley sprigs

1) In a heavy saucepan, bring the water and 2 tsp salt to a boil over high heat.

2) Add the lentils, reduce the heat to low, partially cover, and simmer about 25 minutes or until the lentils are just tender, not mushy.

3) Drain thoroughly and place in a salad bowl.

4) Stir in the onion, scallions, garlic, and parsley.

5) Beat together the oil, vinegar, and salt, pepper, and cayenne with a fork or whisk until well blended.

6) Pour over the salad and toss lightly but thoroughly with a fork. Cover and chill.

7) Serve garnished with the egg slices, onion rings, and parsley springs.


Leo's notes:

One of the keys to this dish is to cook the lentils just so. I constantly taste the lentils while they're cooking to make sure they don't overcook. What you want is a chewy, nutty consistency. If you overcook them, they get mushy and the salad suffers greatly from it. Once I'm happy with their consistency, I quickly take them off the heat, drain them, and pour cold water over them to stop their cooking further.

I also up the garlic count in this recipe anywhere from 3-4 cloves to as many as 6 cloves. Nutty lentils with lots of garlic is an awesome combo for me. And, while I am careful with the cayenne pepper, this dish really benefits from using a free hand with the freshly ground black pepper. For the garnish, I use red onion for its mild taste and to add another color to the dish.

It's a great recipe and I get to use some of our home grown garlic and some parsley from the parsley plant I dug up in early November and transplanted into a clay pot that's now sunning itself in our dining room.

Hope you enjoy this one as much as I do.