French Lentil Salad

Recipe by: Leslie Brenner

This earthy, delicious vegan salad is lovely served either warm or room-temperature – and that makes it a perfect make-ahead dish.

You’ll want to use French green lentils for this. The gold-standard are the beautiful little mottled gray-green lentils that come from Le Puy, France. They’re so outstanding they have their own A.O.C. (appellation d’origine contrôlée): lentilles du Puy. Puy lentils have become harder and harder to find in the U.S., but the French green lentils from Rancho Gordo, grown in California, come pretty close. Otherwise, get any French green lentils you can find.

The freshest ones cook quickly, about 20 minutes; stored longer, they can take twice as long.

It's a very forgiving salad. Feel free to use a different type of oil (walnut oil would be great), or a different kind of vinegar – sherry vinegar, for instance. Throw in some diced roasted red peppers, chopped celery leaves or …