Makes 6 servings
Total time: 20 minutes || Active time: 20 minutes (not including time to cook lentils)
I love summery food. But enjoying a summery salad doesn’t mean that you have to be hungry ten minutes later. Enter the lentil.
This salad, studded with the little legume, makes the most of the season. It’s hearty and light at the same time. Sweet and savory. Whimsical, yet down to earth. Full of contradiction. It’s the Zooey Deschanel of salad!
I love to toss together field greens, with their pretty colors and velvetty textures, and romaine, for the crunch. The fruit adds sweetness (obviously), but texture, too. Choose fruit that is a little bit more firm than you’d like to eat as is, that way it holds its sweet form once you mix it with the dressing. And the lentils make the salad not only substantial but also maybe a little adorable?
The pickled red onions are totally optional. But I urge you to make them because 1) they’re easy and 2) they add a sweet tartness that just makes the salad sing. All you have to do is toss the pickles in a little vinegar and sugar right before prepping everything else.
They’re great on veggie burgers and tacos, too. If you’re not the type to make pickles, this might be the time to change that. It makes a great conversation starter/pickup line. “Hey, I make pickles.” Try it.
Ok, now go forth and salad!
Notes
~To cook lentils, submerge them in slightly salted water by 3 inches. You can throw in a bay leaf, if you like. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer, and let cook for about 20 minutes, with the lid slightly ajar to allow steam to escape. Check tenderness after 20 minutes, but it could take 30 or even 40 minutes for them to be Goldilocks perfect: not too soft, not too hard.
~Once lentils are tender enough, drain and spread them out in the colander to cool. (Obviously make sure the colander has holes small enough that the lentils won’t fall through.) If you’re trying to speed chill them, place in the freezer and give them a stir every few minutes. They’ll cool in 15 minutes or so that way. Otherwise, place in the fridge once they’re stopped steaming. You can do this a few days ahead.
~If you don’t want to cook lentils, you can purchase canned or boxed ones that are already cooked. They’re pretty good! Just give a rinse and you’re good to go.
Ingredients
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch salt
Small red onion, sliced into thin half moonsCreamy Mustard Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup vegan mayo, storebought or homemade
2 tablespoons chopped shallot or onion
1 clove garlic (about a teaspoon minced)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
Big pinch salt
For the salad:
4 oz mixed greens
1 romaine heart, chopped
1 lb stone fruit (I used nectarines), diced small
2 cup lentils cooked lentils (see cooking notes above)
Directions
In a large mixing bowl, toss together the greens, fruit and lentils. Top with pickled onions and drizzle with dressing. Serve!
Hey, the pickles are currently pickling in my kitchen. Thank you!
(And the whole thing looks pretty delicious too!)
Summer-y! This looks great! Every time I look at the stone fruit at the store I can only think of dousing it with sugar and turning it into cobbler or pie (not that there’s anything wrong with that)–now I have a healthier choice. Thanks!
if i wanted to make the salad dressing oil free, do you think cashews would be a good sub?
Yep, perfect! maybe like 3 tablespoons, soaked and pureed with a little water until smooth. Unless you already have some cashew creme laying around.
here i was thinking “stonefruit” was an actual type of exotic fruit!
the dressing sounds really yummy im definitel;y gonna have to try this
I’m loving stone fruit salads right now- just posted one on my blog today in fact! This looks delish, I haven’t made anything lentilly recently either so this might get bumped to the top of the kitchen list.
I have the lentils cooling now, will put it together right after my run. Perfect post run food!
After reading in a recipe that pre-soaking lentils 6-8 hours cuts the cooking time, I tried and it worked. I used beluga for that experiment – they were done 15 -18 min thereabout. Lentils are an amazing food – thanks for the gorgeous summery lentil recipe to try! Ps…will def. make the pickle part, too 🙂
Yes soaking is awesome, good tip, thanks for adding it.
This sounds awesome! Love that vinaigrette!
Never thought of pairing stone fruits with lentils – now I must try it! Looks great!
Made this for dinner – amazing! The pickled onion is perfect and so easy that I’ll probably be covering everything I eat for the next week in some.
What a gorgeous salad! I’ll have to make this for myself since my partner hates stone fruit, what a freak right?!!! I could also make it friendly for him by making it with mango, we’ll see how friendly I’m feeling.
Wow! This salad looks soooo good! I can’t wait to make this one. Thanks for another creative idea 🙂
What a gorgeous salad! Seriously, Isa, you are my own personal chef.
I made this today and served it to omnivore friends of mine. They loved it! I was skeptical about the pickled onions, but they added a nice flavor. I think I’ll put them on other salads, too. I’m ging to make it again next weekend when my sister visits. She doesn’t like lentils, so I’ll probably sub black beans or garbanzos.
Made this tonight just as written and enjoyed it a lot! Hubby, having become addicted to Sirachi from another of your excellent recipes, added that to his salad and pronounced it delish. I’d use a little less red onion in my serving next time but my hubby had no problem with the amount. Isn’t that one of the great things about salad – flexibility! I’ll def share this recipe and make it again myself. Thanks!
I made this salad for lunch today with some white and yellow nectarines from my neighbors’ trees. Delicious!
Isa, I made this salad again tonight because I cooked a big batch of lentils when making the salad for the first time yesterday. So good! Only tonight – for the dressing – I mixed some of the day-old pickled onion liquid with Vegenaise. Was a delicious use of that pretty pink liquid, though there were a few kinda-curdle (?) lumps. I could have whisked them out I imagine, but because they didn’t affect the flavor and would blend in with the salad’s texture, I let them be. The day-old pickled onions were soft and sweet. Of course hubby put Sriracha on it all, once again!
This recipe looks yumm and nutrious! power pack! thanks for sharing 🙂
Omagerd, Isa! I just made this and it was shove-in-your-face good! My husband was trying to steal my salad from me after he finished his. Oh, I added pumpkin seeds and an avocado too, because I needed to use them up. 🙂 This will be in our rotation from now until…forever! Thank you!
I had some fresh organic peaches that were on my counter that were perfectly ripe and eating them by just by themselves was not as exciting to me so I made this salad (it was AWESOME timing, btw!). Let me first off start by saying that it looks as pretty as it tastes. I originally served this salad as a side with my infamous vegan lasagna but it made a lot as a side so I had PLENTY leftover for lunch….I’m still drooling just thinking about it! I think Zooey would be proud 🙂
This is soooooo yummy! I used arugula for the greens, which I will not do next time, but the dressing was amazing coupled with the peach and shallots. I also used red lentils instead of green, which worked out well, I think. Thanks for the recipe!
I can’t eat red onions. Would the pickling work for shallots? I’m excited to try this salad!
I think this would make addition to Christmas lunch as I’m always on the look out for something a bit different (Christmas is summertime in Australia). Thanks
Eating this right now!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was incredible! The pickled onions were delicious. Thank you!
maybe apples instead of stone fruit? I’ll give a try and let you know how it tastes 😉
YUM! I made this last night and it’s even better the next day! I didn’t have mayo, or the energy to make it (no blender), so I basically just did a dijon vinaigrette instead of a mayo-type dressing. I love lentil salads, and this is my new favorite. Thanks, Isa!
done! apples work good!
Absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! I made it for my family last night and it was a huge hit! This is totally a super fancy restaurant tasting salad. So complex, so many layers of flavor, so expertly crafted— I am crazy impressed!!! SO good!! I haven’t had a creamy dressing that really tasted good and not vegan in close to 10 years — thank you!!
This salad is goood. MAKE THE PICKLED ONIONS!
I made it twice as the recipe instructs and used parts of it for numerous other salads since the recipe was posted. Eating it right now without fruit! Also this has led me to using straight up Dijon mustard as a salad dressing. So hooked on all levels.
This is delicious. *****
It was beautiful, too! I was so greedy for it, I didn’t take a picture.
Just found this website. Made this salad, and we loved it!
Thanks!
This was a great combination of flavors. Next time I’d use half as much mustard in the dressing. My family thought a little too vinegary & mustardy, but I really liked it.
i love this recipe so much. ive made it twice now. once with nectarines and once with peaches and everyone i serve it to loves it too. i love the mustard dressing. i was scared of the pickled red onions so i put them on a plate for people to add themselves but i ended up loving those too!!
i thought it made a shit ton of lentils though. i used a cup of dry lentils. seemed like a ton!
I made this because I love Isa’s salads but I was seriously skeptical about the combo of peaches, Dijon mustard, and lentils. It was totally delightful and the pickled red onions are my jam! I also added them to a mock tuna salad sandwich and they added so much flavor and enjoyability. Do it up!
Fantastic summer salad. Have made it several times now. Was skeptical about those pickled onions, but they are the bomb. I always have enough left over lentils for a lentil soup the next day.
I’m not too keen on vinegar or mustard, so dressing is usually passed over but I’ve thought about this salad ever since I started liking plums over the past summer. I was wondering if apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar could be used for making the onions?
The salad is good, but those pickled onions (added mustard seed to mine) are fabulous! They’re part of my current favorite pizza combination: with sliced mushrooms, manzanilla olives, pickled jalapenos (done the same way as the onions, but with celery seed), and basil chiffonade (added post-bake). With some sriracha if it’s not spicy enough.
My boyfriend’s meat and potato family loved this salad so much that there wasn’t any left. Thanks for the recipe!
just made this – deepish!!
the dressing and the pickled onions are new favorites in my kitchen!
really glad to have cooked off some lentils….want them in many quick meals.