31.3.09

Salad or soup?


March was ablaze with sunshine; cotton jackets emerged from under heavy coats, cherry tomatoes covered the breakfast toast, creamy avocadoes turned up for almost every meal,
and it seemed that the jellied chicken stock would not go the way of onion soup but of asparagus risotto.
Except that now we´re firmly back in midwinter. With a fridge full of stuff bought with different weather in mind.
It seems too springy, despite everything, to make soup, and yet we can´t live on a few leaves and some silly white wine.
My favourite in between solution is lentil salad. Robust, yet sprightly enough.

All you need is lamb´s lettuce , topped with lentils that you´ve boiled yourself. THe reason for this is that the cooking liquid is full of flavour, and will help you to avoid dressing them with tons of oil. With a few spoonfuls of the liquid, a bit of oil, lots of lemon juice, some of the zest, and the garlic from boiling lentils squished in, you have a pretty wonderful combo.
If you have some bacon on hand, that can never hurt, and goat´s cheese is always good. A poached egg is heavenly. And for a gold medal, add a spoonful of onion jam.

I´m a huge fan of bottled beans, but lentils don´t seem to make it past the process so well, and they´re not such a bother to make, with the no soaking, no taking forever thing. So I definitely recommend making your own, specially if you can find the little black exquisite caviar lentils from León.

7 comentarios:

Rachel dijo...

That sounds lovely!

kickpleat dijo...

I made a black lentil salad on Sunday and I should have topped it with a poached egg. That would have been something! And the illustration, lovely as always!

annie dijo...

This sounds so good - and cheap and low-carb, to boot! Just got a great recipe for onion jam...I'm on it.

Nicole dijo...

Nice post. There are a lot of lovely rice salads as well. Or how about asparagus soup?

Thermomixer dijo...

Thanks for the ideas. I prefer to cook the lentils in a chicken or beef stock - not for vegetarians sorry. The cans really don't have the same flavour/texture.

Ximena is too modest to put in a link for her onion jams HERE.

Rebecca dijo...

Sounds wonderful!! And I love lentils, but don't often make then in a salad, thanks for this!

Mary Coleman dijo...

What a lovely idea!!! and the onion jam is a brilliant touch.

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