A Desk Lunch-Worthy Lentil Salad

It's packable, filling, and I never seem to tire of it

Hello and welcome to the Thursday recipe drop! Still sick around these parts, but I just had two bowlfuls of Feel-Better Chicken and Rice Soup (made even easier with a rotisserie chicken, because sick) and am feeling invincible because it’s the most substantial dish I’ve been able to cook in days.

Today’s recipe is for a lentil salad I’ve made and loved for years, even though I’ve just noticed that almost everything I’ve written about so far here involves salad. Ironic, because I don’t actually eat that much salad IRL. I promise some non-salad content this way cometh.

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But in the meantime, ha, more salad! Today’s recipe is adapted from Lunch At The Shop: The Art and Practice of The Midday Meal by Peter Miller, a charming little cookbook I’m pretty sure I stole from the BA library a million years ago. It’s a small and slim book written by a Seattle bookstore owner who makes an earnest case for investing more intention and care in the midday meal. The book is based on the many lunches the bookstore employees have put together in the shop’s kitchenette, and is filled with the kind of food I love to eat: sandwiches with apple slices, soft cheese, arugula, and almond butter; summer soup with fresh shell beans and a little parsley; pasta salad with sausage and red peppers. It also has a recipe for the best roast chicken breast I’ve ever had, but we’ll save that for another day.

“Some of cooking is using food you love. And some of cooking is using food you have left. Lunch is about both.” —Peter Miller, Lunch At The Shop

When I worked in an office, I would often make a plain pot of lentils at the beginning of the week and incorporate them into several desk lunches; often they’d end up in a version of Peter’s Lentils Folded Into Yogurt, Spinach, and Basil. Once dressed, the lentils keep well for several days in the fridge and can be paired with lots of things: small boiled potatoes, a slice of toast, some crisp lettuce leaves dressed with lemon and olive oil, a hearty cracker or Wasa crisps or rice cakes.

You can use whatever sturdy lentils you have (green/brown/fancy French green), but I implore you to seek out high-quality olive oil, fresh black pepper, and real-deal aged Parmesan. Because the ingredient list is spare, this salad is all about the quality of what goes into it, as well as how you season it. When the garlic is fresh, the olive oil pungent, the cracked pepper fragrant and spicy, and the Parmesan savory, this humble little meal becomes so much more than just another desk lunch. I hope you love it as much as I do.

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I folded some raw mature spinach leaves into this version

Lentil Salad with Yogurt and Basil
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 cup raw walnut halves
1 cup dried green, brown, or French lentils
Kosher salt
1 plump garlic clove, peeled
1 big handful fresh basil leaves, torn
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon
1 cup Greek yogurt
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Freshly ground black pepper
A small hunk of Parmesan cheese
Lemon wedges, for serving

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread out walnuts in a single layer on a small rimmed baking sheet and toast until fragrant but not very browned, about 7 minutes. Let nuts cool slightly then coarsely chop; set aside.

2. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a rolling boil. Add lentils and a five-finger pinch of salt and reduce heat to a merry simmer. Cook lentils, skimming off any scum as needed, until just barely tender, taking care to not overcook them lest you end up with lentil mush instead of lentil salad. This can take as little as 8 minutes, so taste early and often. Drain lentils and transfer to a large bowl. Finely grate the garlic clove over the still-hot lentils, season with a little salt, and toss to combine. Let cool.

3. Add basil, lemon zest, lemon juice, yogurt, olive oil, and as many grinds of black pepper as you desire to bowl with lentils and gently mix to combine. Fold in reserved toasted nuts. Use a vegetable peeler to shave thin strips of Parmesan cheese over salad and fold in. Taste and season with more lemon juice, salt, and/or pepper.

4. You can serve this lentil salad at room temperature or cold. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and pass lemon wedges at the table. My favorite way to eat this salad is spooned into small crisp lettuce leaves that I shovel directly into my mouth, or piled on top of a slice of good toast rubbed with a cut garlic clove. This salad keeps well for 2 or 3 days.

I’ll see you all tomorrow for another edition of Gentle Pleasures; I loved reading all your comments last week. Subscribe if you want that in your inbox.

–Chaey