Lentil, Tomato, and Goat Cheese Salad

Lizzie-Babette's Note:

Nice change of pace salad, perfect year-round, but especially nice for summer pot-lucks and cookouts, as there's no mayo to spoil. You could tweak this recipe quite a lot and add different spices to get a whole new recipe. This could work as both a main meal or as a side dish, depending on your preference.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 40 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 cup lentils (I use brown)
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 bunch green onion, minced
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/3 cups diced peeled cucumbers
• 2/3 cup diced plum tomato (seed if you like)
• 1/3 cup finely-chopped red onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1 tablespoon dried dill
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley or 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 6 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, chilled for easier crumbling (like Montrachet)
• 1/4 cup lightly-toasted walnuts or 1/4 cup pine nuts, with 2 t reserved for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook lentils in medium pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 25 minutes, and drain well.
2. Whisk together in a large bowl vinegar, green onions and mustard in large bowl.
3. Gradually whisk in oil.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add lentils and let stand until cool.
6. When cool, add cucumber, tomatoes, onion, dill, parsley and garlic to lentil mix.
7. Season again with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Cover and chill about 1 hour.
9. Just before serving, crumble goat cheese over salad and mix gently to combine.
10. If using lightly-toasted nuts, sprinkle over salad and gently mix in, reserving 2 T to garnish on the top.

Reviews

[Maito]

This was a great salad, especially with some lemon squeezed over it. The goat cheese and nuts were good on it, but certainly not necessary components. Evelyn's suggestion of using feta instead of goat cheese is a good one - that would match this dish well. I tailored this to our tastes and used less oil, mustard and goat cheese and more parsley and dill. The fresh garlic was perfect for me, I didn't think it was overpowering at all. This would be good for a picnic.

[Liza at Food.com]

This was great! I had to make dinner for someone who is sick and needs more lentils in their diet. I'm not really a lentil lover so I instantly thought soup...but it is August. So your lentil salad was perfect. I dropped it off with cold fried chicken, pasta side and fresh melon-great summer meal! The flavors are just right and i love the heavy garlic, fresh parsley and crunch of the pine nuts. Thanks for posting!

[kelly in TO]

This was so good! I used a grainy stone ground mustard and toasted pine nuts, the flavors were great together. Thanks! I will for sure make this again soon.