Late Summer Lentil Salad with Cilantro Dressing

Late summer. 

I love those words. 

They mean there is light at the end of a tunnel of hot, long days. You see flashes of orange pumpkins and cream colored butternut squash, but you still hold bright, ripe tomatoes in your hand along with crunchy cucumbers and possibly still some sweet corn. 

Most people might consider the holidays the season of hope. But this. This is my season of hope. I’m hopeful that I just might make it through another hot summer in California’s Central Valley. 

Truth be told, though, my coping mechanism is really to stay on the road a lot. That mission has been successful lately which has meant few blog posts and a need for lighter, wholesome foods upon my return. 

It’s making our epic tomato season come in handy. I kept things simple this year and only planted cherry tomatoes and Early Girl plants, fearing they would all die like previous years. 

Now that they are doing so well, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t plant some rarer heirloom varieties. 

But then something magical happened. 

One of those plans had a yellow tomato sitting on it! Somehow I got a yellow tomato plant mixed in the bunch and I am not complaining. It’s only produced a few pieces of fruit, but I am savoring every bite.

I used the yellow tomatoes in this lentil salad. 

It’s a super simple combination of late summer vegetables with brown lentils. It’s all tossed in a cilantro dressing. I spiralized the cucumbers, just for fun, but you can slice or chop them. It will all taste the same. 

For lentil salads, I undercook lentils just a bit, which can be tough to accomplish. I want them to be a little firm, not mushy so that they hold up to stirring. You have to watch them closely while cooking. Feel free to substitute other varieties of lentils like French green or black lentils. 

This is pretty well lunch for me, but you can also make it a side dish and serve it with something like grilled chicken. It makes a nice take-along picnic salad, too. 

I also made a short lentil salad video for this one. You can view it below.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup dry brown lentils
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 English cucumber, spiralized or chopped
3 small yellow tomatoes, chopped
3 green onions, sliced, greens and whites divided
1 cup cilantro
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 to 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

PREPARATION

Place the lentils in a large saucepan, cover with about 3 cups of water. Add the garlic cloves. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to simmer. Partially cover with a lid and cook 15 to 20 minutes until tender, but not mushy. Drain any remaining water, discard the garlic, and rinse the lentils with cold water. Transfer to a large bowl. 

Add the cucumber, tomatoes, and white portion of the sliced green onions to the lentils. Stir gently to mix all ingredients.

Add the cilantro, greens of the onions, olive oil, and lime juice to a small food processor or the cup of a single serve blender. Puree until smooth. 

Pour the dressing over the lentil salad, toss to coat all ingredients. Sprinkle in the salt and pepper and gently stir it in. Serve room temperature or chilled.