French Lentil and Arugula Salad with Herbed Cashew Cheese
Try this French Lentil and Arugula Salad with Herbed Cashew Cheese recipe
Try this French Lentil and Arugula Salad with Herbed Cashew Cheese recipe
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 clove garlic minced
- pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 small shallot minced
- 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
- 2 1/2 cups cooked lentils drained well (preferably le puy green lentils)
- 2 cups firmly packed baby arugula leaves
- 1 cup spiralized radishes (blade d) – or thinly sliced if you can’t find large enough radishes to spiralize
- 1 cup chopped endive
- 1 cup spiralized cucumber (blade d)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
- 1/3 cup toasted walnuts chopped
- for the herbed cashew cheese - use 1/4 cup (recipe
- 1 1/2 cups cashew pieces or a combination of cashews and pine soaked in water for at least 3 hours and drained
- 2 tablespoons large-flake nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons herbes de provence
- Carbohydrate 16.8826420527225 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 11.1697190819484 g
- Fiber 5.74037543940067 g
- Protein 7.44213079131264 g
- Saturated Fat 1.25833907659966 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (118g)
- Sodium 17.9521692732824 mg
- Sugar 11.1422666133219 g
- Trans Fat 0.473977634877143 g
- Calories 187 calories
Step-by-step
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the olive oil, shallot, salt, lemon juice, vinegar, and mustard until evenly blended.
- In a large bowl, stir together the lentils, arugula, radishes, endive, cucumber, and dill. Drizzle evenly with the dressing, then toss or stir until all the ingredients are evenly coated. Stir in the walnuts and season with black pepper to taste. Dot the top of the salad with small bits of the cashew cheese (about 1/2 teaspoon each).
- Serve the salad right away, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Pick out any that are discolored or shriveled. Rinse the lentils under running water, then combine them in a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of water. Bring the water to a rapid simmer, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Add extra water as needed so that the lentils remain barely submerged. Simmer the lentils for 20 to 30 minutes, until they’re tender but retain some chew. (Red lentils take less time to cook because they’ve been split, so they’ll likely be tender in 20 to 25 minutes.) Drain them, then season with salt and pepper to taste. 1 cup of dry red, brown, or Le Puy lentils will make between 2 and 2 1/4 cups of cooked lentils.
- Put the cashews in a food processor or blender (preferably a high-speed blender). Add the nutritional yeast, salt, herbes de Provence, pepper, lemon juice, and garlic. Pulse a few times to break the cashews down until they have a wet, coarse, mealy texture.
- With the motor running, drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the water. Now it’s time for some kitchen intuition: keep adding water, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the work bowl, until the mixture has a good consistency. It should be similar to thick hummus—a little coarse, but smooth and spreadable. You may not need all of the remaining 2 tablespoons of water. (If using a blender, start on a low speed and gradually increase to high speed as you add the water, using a plunger attachment the entire time to keep the mixture blending.)
- Taste and adjust the seasonings as desired. Stored in a covered container in the fridge, the cheese will keep for about 5 days.
Cooks often dump heavy, oil-saturated dressings straight onto delicate greens, instantly wilting the leaves before the dish ever reaches the table. Green Le Puy lentils demand a completely different approach due to their dense, earthy starches and firm skins. When tossed with a sharp champagne vinegar and lemon juice vinaigrette, the acid penetrates the porous surface of the warm legume without breaking down its structural integrity. Mustard acts as an emulsifier here, bridging the gap between the olive oil and citrus so the dressing coats every individual grain instead of pooling at the base of the bowl.
For the accompanying cheese base, soaking raw cashews for at least three hours softens the natural fats, allowing the blades of a high-speed blender or food processor to shear the nut fibers into a smooth paste rather than a gritty meal. Nutritional yeast contributes glutamates that mimic the savory depth of aged dairy, while herbes de Provence introduce volatile oils that bloom when processed with fresh garlic and lemon juice. Add the balancing water gradually, spoon by spoon, to control the viscosity until the mixture mimics the thickness of standard hummus.
Testing doneness on the lentils requires tactile attention rather than a timer alone. Squeeze a single cooked seed between your thumb and forefinger; it should offer slight resistance at the center while yielding completely through the skin. If the interior remains chalky, add warm water in small increments and continue simmering. Leftovers hold well in the refrigerator for up to three days, though the toasted walnuts should be added just before serving to preserve their brittle crunch against the softer textures of the cucumber and endive.
