Lentil Salad With Walnuts and Red Wine Vinaigrette

Recipe from Marie Simmons

Serves 6

I often stretch this salad with 2 cups of leftover cooked rice. But if you don't have cooked rice on hand, cook 2 cups of lentils instead of 1. Serve as a side dish with grilled fish or as a main dish on a bed of lettuce, garnished with tomatoes and quartered hard-cooked eggs, and sprinkled with crumbled feta or goat cheese.

1 cup lentils (flat khaki brown or small green French variety)

1 leafy celery top

1 garlic clove, bruised with the side of a knife

1 bay leaf

Vinaigrette:

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

½ teaspoon coarse salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 cups cooked leftover white or brown rice (optional)

½ cup finely chopped Italian parsley

½ cup finely diced red onion

½ cup finely diced red bell pepper

½ cup finely diced green bell pepper

½ cup finely diced celery

2 tablespoons finely chopped green celery tops

½ cup broken walnuts (optional)

½ cup crumbled feta or cold goat cheese (optional)

1. Pour the lentils into a strainer and rinse with cold water. Sort though them searching for little stones that sometimes find their way into the batch. Drain well.

2. Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water; add the celery top, garlic and bay leaf. Heat to a boil and add the lentils. Cook, uncovered, 12 to 15 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. To avoid over- or undercooking the lentils, after 12 minutes, start tasting them every 2 to 3 minutes. Some lentils cook quickly; others take longer. Drain and set aside. Discard the celery top, garlic and bay leaf.

3. Combine the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and a generous grinding of black pepper in a salad bowl and whisk until blended. Add the lentils, rice (if using), parsley, red onion, bell peppers, celery and celery tops. Stir to blend. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and feta or goat cheese (if using).

— Recipe from Marie Simmons

Per serving with cheese, nuts and rice: 370 calories, 14 g protein, 39 g carbohydrates, 19 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 370 mg sodium, 10 g fiber. Calories from fat: 170.

— Staff analysis