Lentil Salad

I'm posting recipes for butternut squash soup(oops, turns out I already posted that recipe lol just hadn't made it yet this year) and lentil salad from this week's menu plan. I'm sure you can all figure out how to roast a chicken (if not, most other TF bloggers will tell you how, I know Kelly the Kitchen Kop has something on it). I already posted my fry bread recipe, talked about stir fry, and I'm flying by the seat of my pants on the chicken soup. I've never made chicken soup I like before. (actually I've made ok matzo ball soup but the soup was mediocre and the matzo balls were good. I think this was due to lack of chicken fat and mistake I will not repeat). I'm thinking kale, a little chicken, chicken stock, carrots, celery, barley. What on earth do I season it with? the classic onion and chicken fat?


Lentil Salad
Day 1: soak 2 c. french green lentils with a peice of kombu (a dried seaweed. if you can't find it at your health food store or online, do without. it helps break down the beans and adds nutrients but is not nessicary). and a teaspoon of baking soda (this ensures that your water is alkaline and not acidic. acidic water could cause the beans to seize or firm up without cooking.) Make sure you have a LOT of water, because they expand. a lot. like more than double.
Day 2: cook lentils until you like the texture (yummy to add garlic and cumin.) strain, and pour into a bowl, cover with ice water. (a thin stainless bowl is good. Its cheap enough that I don't worry about heat shock, which is why I don't ice it in the pot). Let it cool, strain, and remove kombu and garlic chunks (they'll be bland and tasteless, all the flavor having gone into the lentils.) (you can also just let it cool normally if your cooking in advance. This is a great make in advance dish.)

While you cook and cool the lentils, prep the veggies. You want them about the size of oh, 3-5 lentils? All summer, we've had carrots, tomatos, celery, and raisins. Now that tomatoes are going out of season, I'll have to find new veggies, I'll let you know what works well. As soon as you drain the ice water from the lentils, dress them.
Beans absorb a lot of salt and a lot of vinegar. I recomend a dressing that is 1 part vinegar to 1 part olive oil. about 2-3 times as much salt as you would expect, and some sweetner and a big chunk of mustard. My usual is red wine vinegar and molasses. good also is red wine vinegar and balsamic (molasses is cheaper and you don't taste the baslamic as much as in a green salad), or apple cider vinegar (acv) and molasses. Mix the lentils into this, add the veggies, and crumble in some feta or add chedder chunks (feta is better but chedder is good), or add chopped chicken. I bet salami might be good too, but I can't seem to find a whole salami that is all beef and nitrate free too. (ok, can't find non-sliced salami that is even all beef. ideas?) Let it sit for a bit, mix it up a few times and taste it to see if you need to add more dressing. (it settles to the bottom). fall in love with lentils, and eat leftovers for lunch.