Simple and savory

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If you didn’t know better, you’d think these little fellows were lame

The humble lentil has gotten a bad rap partly because it’s so fragile. You cook the little disc-shaped legumes vigorously, and they’ll turn to mush.

But done well, they’re satisfying, sublime and, well, cheap. Mr. Big Shot Chef himself, Thomas Keller, tosses French lentils with a mustard viniagrette. This way, the lentils are “almost like caviar as they pop against your palate, but with a sensation of creaminess.”

Keller uses a leek to simmer with the lentils, but I replaced it with an onion. He adds sprigs of thyme with the sachet, too, but I didn’t have any sprigs handy, so I skipped it. Chives got traded for scallion.

French lentils, also known as Le Puy lentils, are available at the Lexington Food Co-op, for $2.99 a pound or something ridiculously inexpensive like that. Try this once and see if it doesn’t rehabilitate the lentil for you.

Accompanied by a little salad and some bread, it’s a terrific meal

Lentil salad
(Based on “Bouchon” by Thomas Keller)

Flavorings, in a sachet if desired:
1 head garlic, split in half
12 black peppercorns
3 bay leaves

1 cup French lentils
1 onion, halved
1 large carrot, peeled and halved
½ cup minced onion
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

For the viniagrette:
1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions
1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley

Make a sachet by tying the garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves in a twist of cheesecloth, or brace yourself to pull them out later. Rinse the lentils in a colander, and tip them into a pot. Add the sachet or ingredients, halved onion and carrot. Add water to cover the lentils by two inches, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently until tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Pour the lentils and their liquid into a tray and let them cool. Pick out the sachet, bay leaves, carrot, onion and parts you don’t want to keep. Season with the vinegar, salt and pepper. Drain the lentils. Add the minced onion. Whip together the viniagrette by combining the mustard and vinegar, then whisking steadily while drizzling in the oil slowly to combine. (If that’s just toooo much trouble, you can put the viniagrette ingredients in a small jar with a lid and shake the daylights out of it.)

Stir the viniagrette into the lentils with the scallion and parsley, and serve. Salad and crusty bread would be just lovely alongside, and I daresay a swank little hunk of cheese wouldn’t seem out of place either.

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Filed under recipes, vegetables