Posted by Nancy on March 13, 2017
I'm an inveterate saver of recipes, and the type of cook who riffs off an idea or ingredient or the contents of the refrigerator and pantry to dream up dinner.
Cookbooks abound in our house, to the point where we are forced to periodically purge and donate a bunch to the library. I find that I don't use them much anymore, preferring to search online for ideas about using an ingredient or a dish want to make. They are helpful inspirations, and the ones I have kept are those that contain multiple favorite go-to recipes. One of my all time favorites is the Fish Market Cookbook, written by a dear friend, Dean Betts, who taught me about the amazing pleasures of perfect ingredients, simply prepared.
Then there are 3-ring binders filled with recipes torn out of magazines or gathered from friends and food tastings at the grocery store. Bob and I both love to cook, and it says something (not sure what) about a couple who each have their own collection of recipe notebooks. Mine used to take up several feet of valuable bookshelf space, and finally I realized my cooking interests have evolved, and I am no longer even interested in making most of them. I purged those too, and transferred the important stuff to an online app called Evernote, where everything is at my fingertips on any of my devices, and I no longer need to keep track of the various sizes and splattered states of recipe cards and magazine pages. Now when I find a recipe online or in a magazine or newspaper, I save a digital copy to my recipe files in Evernote. When I hear about a new cookbook I can't live without, I download it to my Kindle app, so I can use it from any of my devices. Bob still keeps his own recipe notebooks, and still uses the cookbooks, so we are a redundant household....
The other day this recipe for TABBOULEH STYLE LENTIL RADISH SALAD from one of my favorite idea sites, Gourmande in the Kitchen, piqued my interest and Saturday's supper became a simple meal of baked salmon and this salad. It was the perfect combo of interesting flavors, crunch and self-congratulatory good nutrition. We loved it, and are going to eat the leftovers for lunch! Thank you, Silvie Shirazi, for the inspiration!
Serves serves 4-6
TABBOULEH STYLE LENTIL RADISH SALAD
Filled with fresh herbs and crunchy radishes, this lentil salad is a spring inspired twist on traditional tabbouleh.
20 minPrep Time
25 minCook Time
45 minTotal Time
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Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Vegan
Cook's notes: I didn't presoak the lentils, and I didn't cook them very long. I brought them to a boil, simmered for about 5 minutes covered, and then turned off the heat while I took a shower. When I cam back a half hour later, they were perfectly al dente, and I drained them and saved them for assembling the salad later in the day. A lover of FLAVOR, I tasted the dressing and added more cumin, garlic and cayenne to taste. Since my chives are just beginning to think about coming up, I dumped in a couple of extra green onions, and I used Dr. Bob's Fennel Salt in place of the plain sea salt.