Salmon and Lentil Salad with Lemon Caper Dressing

The doctors have been warning me for a while now that we are going to have a big baby. I don't have gestational diabetes, but I think it's just in my genes that everything I eat goes straight to the baby.(Some people will roll their eyes when I complain about this.) I was almost 10 pounds when I was born, but my mom hadn't gained much weight. Her wedding rings were actually loose when she went into the hospital. Sugar, fruit and refined white stuff especially beef up the baby, so I have been trying to stick with a fairly high fiber and protein diet and to stay active with lots of walking and yoga.



One meal we especially enjoyed was a Salmon and Lentil Salad with Lemon Caper Dressing. It was nice and refreshing on a hot night. We simply layered some salad greens, cold lentils (but they could be served hot too), pan-fried salmon and topped it off with a delicious, tangy lemon caper dressing. It's a great low carb meal - whatever your reason. For an extra short cut, Trader Joes has some tasty pre-cooked lentils that are pre-seasoned. They keep for quite a while in the fridge, and are great to keep on hand for a quick meal. We like the seasoning they use, and used them as our flavor inspiration.

French Lentils
1/2 lb French lentils
1/2 T thyme
1/2 T oregano
1 t garlic powder
1/4 t salt and pepper
2 bay leaves

Spread the lentils out on a cookie sheet to check for pebbles. Place in a strainer and rinse. Place in a stockpot and add water to cover by an inch. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender but still firm.

Lemon Caper Dressing
2 T olive oil
1 t spicy brown mustard
dash of salt and pepper
1 T apple cider vinegar
2 T water
1 t capers
1/4 lemon, juiced
Extra capers for garnish

Whisk ingredients together to combine.

We enjoyed some extra capers sprinkled over the top of our salad.

This post is part of Ekat's Kitchen Friday Potluck, Designs by Gollum Foodie Friday, Fat Camp Friday, Susie QT Pies Friday Follow, and Ann Kroeker's Food on Friday.

Lentils with Beets and Goat Cheese

There are lots of things I love about participating in a CSA farm share: it arrives each week encouraging us to eat lots of vegetables, pushes us to try new and different things, and makes us get creative to find new ways to prepare vegetable overload. One down side is that I don't know the names of all of our loot. For example, we have gotten several beets each week for the last several weeks. When we pick them out of the bin (simply labeled beets)they are all lightly coated in dirt, and it is hard to tell what color they are. It is not until you are at home scrubbing them clean that their color is revealed. Are yellow beets simply called "yellow beets" or do they have another name? Are red beets just called "beets"? I did a quick internet search that was not very fruitful. I know the stripped ones are chioggia, but my knowledge ends there.

We made a simple dinner from lentils, carrot tops, goat cheese and yellow and red beets. I have made this before, and it is always satisfying. Here is the recipe from last time. This time we used some carrot tops we had on-hand. I had never really eaten carrot tops until recently. I always felt bad throwing them out, but I wasn't sure what to do with them. When I read about carrot top pesto over at Not Eating Out in New York it inspired me to change my ways. Carrot tops have a taste that are somewhere between parsley and carrots, and they add a nice fresh flavor to the peppery lentils, tangy sauce, sweet beets and creamy cheese.


Lentils with Beets and Goat Cheese

3 C chicken stock
1 c lentils
4 beets
3 T balsamic vinegar
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 t Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
handful of carrot tops, chopped
goat cheese

Check the lentils for stones, rinse, and add to the chicken stock. Bring it to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Cook until the lentils are tender (15 - 60 minutes depending on the type of lentils). Meanwhile, scrub the beets. Place them in a sauce pot and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil, and cook until a fork can easily pierce the beets. Remove from water and let cool. Add the vinegars, mustard, garlic and carrot tops to the lentils. Once the beets are cool, use a spoon to peel the beets. Cut into bit size slices, and add to the lentil mixture. Serve them with goat cheese crumbled on the top.

I found that the yellow beets cooked much faster than the red ones, so check on them periodically to prevent over cooking.


This post is part of Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade, Grocery Cart Challenge, Frugal Friday, and Finer Things Friday.

Lentil Salad with Beets

I have gotten a bit behind on my posts during the busy holiday weekend. In addition to being 4th of July, it was also my husband's birthday. We made time to head to the Farmers' Market at Union Square Saturday morning to pick up some food to supplement our farm share. We got some chicken from Quattro's Game Farm. They also had some pheasant and other birds labeled wild game, and we asked if they were wild animals that they had killed. We learned that they were "wild" breeds that were farm raised because it is illegal to sell the meat of wild animals. Interesting. I think it is misleading to label them "wild." Heritage breeds or something else seems more appropriate, but we bought a cut-up chicken in a bag of marinade and some chicken breasts. We also got some non-homogenized milk from Milk Thistle , a delicious loaf of bread from a Our Daily Bread, and eggs.


We brought home our loot and decided to prepare some chicken in our dutch oven, red quinoa and a cold lentil salad. Here's the recipe for the lentil salad inspired by Martha Stewart:

Lentil Salad with Beets, inspired by Martha Stewart
6 C water
1 1/2 C French lentils
3 medium beets, scrubbed
3 T balsamic vinegar
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 t Dijon mustard
1/4 C olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
pinch of salt
4 carrots, chopped
salad greens
goat cheese

Bring water and lentils to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered until the lentils are tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Drain and put aside to cool in a mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, place beets in a medium saucepan. Add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cooking until fork-tender. Remove beets from water, and set aside until cool enough to handle. Peel and slice.

In a coffee cup, combine the mustard, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, salt and oil. Add the shallots. Mix the vinaigrette dressing, lentils and carrots. Cover and place in the refrigerator to chill.

When ready to serve, layer the greens, lentil mixture, sliced beets and crumble soft goat cheese over the top.

The first night we had this as a side dish, but we have since eaten the leftovers as a meal.

Lentils and Rice

We continue on our quest to eat up all of the CSA vegetables before we leave town tomorrow night. This quest led to a strange combination of dishes for dinner last night. Each one was very good in its own right, but they were a bit odd together. We started with hummus with turnips and radishes (a recipe to follow in another post). I quickly baked some kale "chips," and immediately regretted turning the oven on. We rounded out the night with some kale with bacon and lentils and rice. The kale with bacon was delicious, but my husband aptly observed that it tasted like a BBQ dish. It would pair really well with some grilled meat, potato salad, etc. The lentil recipe was adapted from our Indian food store's recipe. It was also very good and would go nicely with a salad and some simple vegetables. Here are the recipes:

Lentils and Rice
1 small red onion, chopped
handful of garlic scapes, finely chopped
2 t ginger, chopped
4 T butter or oil
1/2 t garam masala
1/2 t cumin seed
1/2 t turmeric (I used fresh, but powdered will work too)
1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, minced
1 C rice and lentil mixture
4 C water
1 pinch salt

Saute onion, scapes and ginger in butter or oil until soft. Add the garam masala, cumin seed, turmeric and jalapeno and cook for a couple of more minutes. Add the rice and lentil mixture and water and cook over medium heat until tender (about 25-30minutes). Serve with cilantro and green onion or leftover chutney.

Kale with Bacon
5 slices bacon
1 bunch of kale, torn into pieces
2 T balsamic vinegar

Cook the bacon until starting to brown. Remove from the heat and cut into bite size pieces. Pour off any excess fat. Return the bacon pieces to the pan and add the kale. Once the kale is tender, add the balsamic vinegar and cook just a couple extra minutes.

Lentils with Greens

The quest for new greens recipes continues. Today we looked to India for inspiration. We decided to include greens in our favorite recipe for lentils. The results were fantastic. The greens added another dimension to the spicy, garlicky, nutty taste of the lentils.


Lentils with Greens
4 C water
1 C lentils
1/2 lb braising greens, washed and chopped
2 T butter
1 T cumin seeds
2 T cumin
1 T turmeric
1/4 t cayenne or 1 T chili powder
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 t salt

Put a sauce pan over high heat and add the water, lentils and greens. In a separate saute pan, melt butter over medium high heat. Add the cumin seeds and cook until they sizzle. Add garlic, cumin, turmeric and cayenne and cook 1 minute. Add the spices to the sauce pan of lentils. Once the lentils come to a boil, lower to medium heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Add the salt after finished cooking.

The step of cooking the spices in butter or oil before adding them to the lentils is very important. This is a key step in Indian cooking because it releases the full flavor of the spices.

We served the lentils with greens over steamed cauliflower. After a weekend of eating lots of liver and onions, it was nice to have a vegetarian dinner.