Warm Puy Lentil Salad with Walnuts

Name: Warm Puy Lentil Salad with Walnuts
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 250 g Puy lentils; 1 (about 120 g) red onion, finely sliced; 3 tbsp red wine vinegar; 60 g walnuts, broken; 4 tbsp olive oil; 2 tsp Dijon mustard; 200 g cherry tomatoes, halved; 1 large bunch flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped; 1 bay leaf

Lentils dressed while still hot so they drink the mustard vinaigrette, with toasted walnuts, red onion softened in vinegar and a lot of parsley.

VeganMeal prep

A wide shallow bowl of dark green lentils glossy with dressing, scattered with halved cherry tomatoes, pink pickled red onion, broken walnuts and a thick layer of chopped parsley.

Servings: 4
Total time: 35 min
Hands-on: 15 min

What you need

Saucepan
Small dry frying pan
Jar for the dressing

Ingredients

250 gPuy lentils— weighed dry
1 (about 120 g)red onion, finely sliced
3 tbspred wine vinegar
60 gwalnuts, broken
4 tbspolive oil
2 tspDijon mustard
200 gcherry tomatoes, halved
1 large bunchflat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1bay leaf

How to make it

Put the sliced red onion in a small bowl with the vinegar and a pinch of salt and leave it there while you cook. Twenty minutes in vinegar takes the aggression out of raw onion and turns it bright pink.
Simmer the lentils in unsalted water with the bay leaf for 20–25 minutes until tender but still holding their shape. Salt them only at the end — added at the start it toughens the skins and the lentils stay hard however long you cook them.
Toast the walnuts in the dry pan for 3 minutes and tip them out of the pan immediately.
Whisk the olive oil and mustard into the onion and its vinegar to make the dressing.
Drain the lentils and tip them straight into the dressing while they are steaming hot. This is the step that matters: hot lentils absorb dressing, cold lentils are merely coated by it.
Fold in the tomatoes, walnuts and parsley, season generously and let it stand for 10 minutes before eating.

Per serving, roughly

Energy: ~430 kcal
Protein: ~19 g
Carbs: ~36 g
Fat: ~21 g

These are estimates calculated from standard ingredient values. Your numbers will shift with the exact products you buy and with how generously you fill the plate — oil, sauces and cheese move them the most.

Variations

With goat's cheese

Crumble 100 g of soft goat's cheese over before serving. About 90 kcal and 6 g more protein per portion — and no longer a plant-based dish.

Packed lunch

Keeps 3 days in the fridge. Add the walnuts and parsley on the day you eat it, not before — the nuts soften and the parsley goes dark.

Coach's tip

19 g of protein in a salad that holds up in a lunchbox, with the fibre to keep you full until training. The walnuts are a third of the calories here, so halve them if you are counting closely — but do not drop the olive oil, which is what carries the mustard.

More recipes

Other recipes worth a place in your week.

MealsMediterranean Chickpea SaladChickpeas, tomato, cucumber and olives with far more herbs than looks sensible and a lemon dressing sharp enough to carry them. No cooking at all.MealsLentil BolognesePuy lentils cooked down with a proper soffritto, red wine and a long simmer until the sauce clings to the pasta. Nothing here pretends to be mince.MealsRoasted Beetroot & Quinoa Salad with FetaBeetroot roasted in its skin until it is sweet rather than earthy, tossed through quinoa with orange, feta and toasted walnuts. Mostly oven time.

General information only, not medical or nutritional advice. If you have a health condition, an allergy, or specific dietary needs, talk to a qualified professional.

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