French Lentil Salad

This earthy, delicious salad (which happens to be vegan!) is lovely served either warm or room-temperature – and that makes it a perfect make-ahead dish. (We wrote about it in July 2017.) One of the many reasons I love lentils is that they cook more quickly than most dried legumes – usually about 20 minutes, sometimes a little more (it depends on the lentils). For this salad, cook them until they're tender, but not mushy. The best lentils for this dish are green ones, especially French green lentils. The best of these, from Puy, France, have their own A.C. (appellation contrôlée): lentille du Puy. Black (beluga) lentils also work well. You don't want to use brown, red or yellow lentils, all of which fall apart when they cook.

It's a very forgiving salad. Feel free to use a different type of oil (walnut oil would be delicious), or a different kind of vinegar – sherry vinegar, for instance. Throw in some diced roasted red peppers, chopped celery leaves or raw shallots, if you like, add a touch of ground cumin, or use basil instead of parsley. And if you're missing the bay leaf, or the garlic, or the thyme, don't worry – it'll still be delicious. Black pepper is fine to use in place of the chili flakes or Espellette or Aleppo pepper.

Serves 6 to 8.

Ingredients

5 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, cut into small dice

1 large or 2 small carrots, cut into small dice