A lovely refreshing summery salad perfect prepared ahead for work lunches. Puy lentils pressure cook really quickly (I use an Instant Pot). They also don’t take long in a pan on the hob if you don’t have a pressure cooker but electric pressure cookers allow you the convenience of programming it and getting on with other things, no need to hang around.
I’ve called this Fusion Lentil Salad as it includes all my favourite ingredients for a mixed salad with tuna, white asparagus, etc. and a few new ingredients I’ve discovered in the past year or so, like sumac and pomegranate molasses. Puy lentils cook in no time so you can prepare the rest of the salad while they cook, tidy up your kitchen, add them at the end and eat in a very much non-stressful manner.
This salad is one of those where you can add and remove ingredients as you wish, depending on your taste or cupboard contents. Pomegranate seeds would go really well with it, as would soft or hard-boiled eggs or sliced apple.
What is an Instant Pot? Well, you’ve come to the right place for that. I’v had my Instant Pot DUO for over a year and absolutely love it (to think I expected not to like it!), so much so that now I also work with them doing their social media! I have an offer for it and tons of details about it right here but, in essence, it’s an electric pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, yoghurt maker, keep warmerer… You can cook soups, stews, curries, tomato sauces, cheesecakes (yes cheesecakes!), soft or hard boil a ton of eggs at the same time, cook rice, cook porridge… and with the DUO you can make yoghurt which long term can save you money. It also keeps your food warm for you at the end of the pressure cooking and slow cooking cycles, meaning you can get on with life! And at this time of year it means you can cook without heating up the kitchen (bonus!).
In the last year it has saved my sanity, above all since my fibromyalgia diagnosis. It’s totally silent in operation and it means I can pressure cook a bolognese (for example) for the little Tapita, leave it then on slow cook for the grown-ups and I eat whenever I’m ready and when husband gets home from his commute, the Instant Pot is keeping his food warm and I can just tell him that dinner is in the pot, he helps himself, I rest. I chop everything first in my Thermomix and let the Instant Pot cook. Perfect on days when background noise becomes unbearable for me. Win win.
Don’t forget I have a Pressure Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas group on Facebook.
Ready for the recipe?
Fusion Puy Lentil Salad (includes Instant Pot instructions)
Ingredients
- 150 g puy lentils
- Half a red onion
- Juice of half lemon
- Half a teaspoon of pomegranate molasses
- 1 teaspoon of sumac
- 1 handful of fresh coriander, chopped
- 120 g tinned tuna (or try searing fresh tuna to go with it)
- 2 small cooked beetroots, sliced
- White asparagus, 190 g jar, drained weight is 110g
- A handful of sesame seeds or sunflower seeds, or both
- Crushed cashew nuts for a bit of crunch (optional)
Method
Start by cooking the lentils in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker:
150 g puy lentils, rinsed with water in a sieve, and placed in the inner pot with 2 cups of water (450 ml), natural release. In the Instant Pot all you need to do is press Manual and then the – (minus) button to programme 1 minute. In a conventional pressure cooker: bring to high pressure and cook for 1 minute, natural release. If you want to cook more
lentils, all you have to do is make sure that the lentils are covered in
water.
While the lentils are cooking, work on the other ingredients:
Add to a large bowl:
– Half a red onion, cut in thin wedges
– Juice of half lemon
– Half a teaspoon of pomegranate molasses
– 1 teaspoon of sumac
– 1 handful of fresh coriander, chopped
Mix well.
Add:
– 120 g tinned tuna (or try searing fresh tuna to go with it
– 2 small cooked beetroots, sliced
– White asparagus, 190 g jar, drained weight is 110g
– A handful of sesame seeds or sunflower seeds, or both
– Green olives (as many as you want), I tend to have a big jar of basic pimiento stuffed olives like this one at all times, very handy for these salads and for snacks
– Crushed cashew nuts for a bit of crunch (optional)
Mix well
Drain the lentils when they are ready. If you fancy a warm salad, then add the lentils straight away. If you fancy a cooler salad, place the cooked lentils in a sieve and rinse with cold water before adding to the rest of the ingredients.
Mix well and drizzle with extra pomegranate molasses, lemon juice and sumac before eating if you fancy more.
Enjoy
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